“Greek Crisis” in Europe

Yiannis Mylonas, Ph.D (2009), University of Copenhagen, is Assistant Professor at the School of Media, National Research University Higher School of Economics, in Moscow.

• PrefaceAcknowledgementsList of Figures and Tables1Introduction: The Study of the Greek Economic Crisis in Europe through the Media1.1Contextual Issues, Critical Political Economy and Cultural Studies1.2European Mass Media as the Empirical Material of the Study1.2.1 A Brief Excursion on Liberalism and its Discontents1.2.2 Greek, Danish and German Liberal Press1.3On Method: Thematic Analysis, Discourse Theory Analysis, Critical Discourse Analysis1.3.1 The Relevance of Discourse Theory1.3.2 Critical Discourse Analysis Perspectives1.4The Analytical Pillars: Race, Class, Politics1.4.1 On Race1.4.1.1Colonial Remainders: An “Eternal” Greece1.4.2 On Class1.4.2.1Dismantling Class Privilege1.4.3 Theorizing (Post)Politics1.5An Outline of the Chapters to Follow2Greek Crisis, Eurozone Crisis, Global Capitalist Crisis2.1Setting the “Greek Crisis” in Perspective2.2A Crisis of Capitalism and Capitalist Crises: A Brief Excursion to Marxian Analyses2.3Crisis and Restructuring: Neoliberalism, Globalisation, Financialisation2.4The Greek Crisis as a Symptom: Centre and Periphery Divisions2.5The EU, the Euro, and Austerity2.6Debt, Restructuring and Primary Accumulation2.7Concluding Remarks: Understanding Capitalism as Religion3The “Greek Crisis” in the Media: Hegemony, Spectacle and Propaganda3.1Media Aspects3.2Political Communication and the Public Sphere3.3Understanding Hegemony3.3.1 The “Greek Crisis” in the Media: A Critical Overview3.3.2 Hegemony, Propaganda and Biopolitics3.4Spectacular Dimensions of the “Greek Crisis”3.5Concluding Remarks: Interpellating and Disciplining the Working Class4A Cultural Failure: Reification, Orientalism, Nationalism4.1Introduction: (I)liberal Uses of Culture4.2Hegemonic Constructions of the (Occidental) Self and the (Oriental) Other4.3Greece as a non/quasi-European Other4.3.1 The Culturalisation of Greece and its Crisis4.3.2 Greece as a Commodity: Media Rituals to Sustain Ideological Myths4.3.3 Nationalism, Narcissism, Anxiety: Europe as a Panopticon and a Benchmark4.4Concluding Remarks: The Occident, the Orient and the Liberal Meritocracy Cult5Under a Middle-Class Gaze5.1Governing Inequality5.2The Middle-Class Gaze and the Media5.3“The Loser” as a Master Class Frame5.4The Greek Crisis and the Construction of “Losers”5.4.1 The Irrational: Ignorant, Irresponsible, and Frustrated5.4.2 The Immoral: Lazy, Profligate, Deceitful and Bankrupt5.4.3 The Threatening Other: Resentment, Spite, and Loath5.4.4 Idealising the Bourgeois; the Enduring Myths of a Peripheral Upper Class5.5Concluding Remarks: Reaction, Diversion, Division6Exceptionalising the Crisis, Normalising Austerity6.1Technocratic Politics6.2Establishing the Crisis and Austerity Publicly in Depoliticised Terms6.2.1 The Eurozone Crisis as an Apocalyptic Spectacle: Mediatised States of Exception6.2.2 Naturalizing Austerity; the Only Solution (Without an Alternative)6.2.3 The “Extreme Center” and Constructions of “Realism”6.3Concluding Remarks: Authoritarian Capitalism with Fascist Dispositions7Conclusions: Context, Politics, Negativity7.1Reinventing Critique, Reinventing Politics7.2Debunking Hegemony’s Crisis’ Myths7.3The Making of Regimes of Entitlement: Class is at the Heart of the Matter7.4Capitalism is Apocalyptic: Politicizing the Crisis, Austerity, the “Free Market”, and the (Capitalist) Economy7.5Negativity and UtopiaBibliographyIndex