The politicised ecologies of austerity Anti-austerity environmentalism during and after the Greek crisis

This chapter focuses on how the environment was mobilised in subaltern struggles against the normalisation of austerity and ‘neoliberal natures’ during and after the 2008 economic crisis in Greece. We ground our analysis on three grassroots environmental movements that emerged as a response to austerity measures: the national ‘no-middlemen’ solidarity food distribution network (2012-2015); the local anti-mining movement in Halkidiki, northern Greece (2011 onwards); and the national movement against new onshore and offshore hydrocarbon explorations (2015 onwards). Using a Gramscian political ecology framework, our analysis shows that by reciprocally combining anti-austerity politics and alternative ways of understanding and mobilizing ‘environmental’ discourses, all three movements successfully challenged the reproduction of uneven society environment relations that had been exacerbated by the austerity agenda and the intensification of neoliberal practices in the country.