Reading between the lines: Gentrification tendencies and issues of urban fear in the midst of Athens’ crisis

Abstract

In gentrifying places the middle classes come into conflict with the pre-existing spatial and social structures, as they challenge the existing order in order to impose their sense of betterment. In times of crisis, spatial contests are confronted with fears which are related to broader feelings of anxiety that turn against the unwanted ‘other’. This paper drives attention to the feelings of fear that arise in the gentrifiers’ perceptions of quotidian life in times of high liquidity in an Athenian inner city neighbourhood. The way gentrification dynamics enmesh with urban fears may provide us with more insights into the conquest of space by the middle classes, thus broadening the scope of gentrification in the context of the current crisis.