Land allocation and social transformation in inter-war Athens: a study in peripheral urbanization

Abstract

The inter-war years represented a turning point in Greek urban history as a capitalist mode of production rose to dominance. Yet despite its European location, Greece should be seen as forming part of a capitalist periphery: for a long period of its history, from the late nineteenth century to the mid-1960s, structural features of its economy and social development differed in important respects from those of most other European countries, and in regard to urban development, the history of Athens – the capital city of Greece – provided a pattern that was the reverse of the European experience. The basis of this article, in fact, is the claim that developments affecting inter-war Athens had features in common with a Latin American pattern of ‘peripheral’ urbanization. Amongst the features that will be illustrated in this review of Greek urbanization – based on a study of the history of Athens – will be economic ‘dualism’, the polarization of social classes, and at greater length, the nature of ‘popular’ land allocation.