Diffusing, negotiating and (dis)continuing healthcare from below: the case of Greece

This paper traces the flourishing and subsequent containment of healthcare or pharmaceutical provision tactics by contentious actors in Greece over the past twelve years. Defined as healthcare and/or pharmaceutical Direct Social Actions, pace Bosi and Zamponi (2015), these tactics “focus upon directly transforming some specific aspects of society by means of the very action itself, instead of claiming something from the state or other power holders” (367; emphasis added). Drawing on participant observation, in-depth interviews with relevant field actors (N=48), and documentary analysis, the paper develops a diachronic typology that analyses and compares three phases (i) the diffusion and modularisation during the years of the austerity-induced health crisis (2010-2015), (ii) their institutionalisation and continuation over the years of “recovery” and healthcare reform (2015-2020), and (iii) the eventual curbing of those tactical forms in the face of the pandemic-induced health crisis (2020-2022). In so doing, the paper advances social movement scholarship in two directions; (1) it helps disentangle the dynamics of repertoire innovation through an understudied set of tactics (healthcare DSAs), as well as (2) sheds light onto the contours of an under-investigated arena of political contestation (healthcare arena). Moreover, the diachronic approach enriches the scholarship on DSAs, which has centred around anti-austerity contentious cycles, by comparing their trajectory over periods of generalised discontent with periods of relative acquiescence, and periods of perceived “crisis” with periods of perceived “recovery”. Finally, the focus on health-related tactics further enriches the relevant bibliography which has predominantly concentrated on their welfare counterparts. Bosi, L., and Zamponi, L. (2015). Direct Social Actions and Economic Crises: The Relationship between Forms of Action and Socio-Economic Context in Italy. Partecipazione e Conflitto, 8(2), 367-391. Available at: http://siba-ese.unile.it/index.php/paco/article/view/15158