Reassessing the Greek Tragedy: A Few Thoughts on the Greek Financial Crisis

University of Brighton Philosophy Society lecture by Dr. Vasilis Leontitsis.

Greece has experienced an unprecedented economic recession in the last few years. Presently, one out of three Greeks is unemployed and the country’s GDP has contracted by more than 25% since the beginning of the crisis. However, the crisis is too deep and multi-faceted to be described by merely presenting its bleak statistics. The talk will attempt to give answers to the following fundamental questions: How financial is the Greek financial crisis? Is it a predominantly Greek issue or does it signify a wider crisis of the European Union and/or of Western capitalism? And to what extent can the Greek tragedy be seen as a chance to alter the major discourse within which we operate? Answering these questions is necessary in order to assess the sheer magnitude and importance of the crisis at hand.

Dr. Vasilis Leontitsis completed his PhD at Sheffield University in 2010, with a thesis on Decentralisation Reforms in Greece (1981-2008): Exploring Inertia and Change. After that, he worked as a Research Fellow at the London School of Economics. He is now a Politics Tutor at the Sheffield International College (SIC), as well as a member of the Executive Committee of the Greek Politics Specialist Group of the Political Studies Association (PSA).