Publication Type: Proceeding
Abstract: This paper examines the idea of immortality in the work of Friedrich Nietzsche. It begins by identifying the impulse to immortality as a form of the will to power. The concept is then described as an effort to project one’s being beyond the usual existential boundaries. This ontological projection is, for Nietzsche, a healthy and normal part of human existence if done correctly. For Nietzsche, the correct way is epitomized by the pre-Socratic vision of immortality, which is characterized in this paper as “cosmological projection.” This form of immortality is most vividly manifest in Nietzsche’s work in Greek tragedy and, in this author’s vision, at the ancient Olympic athletic competitions.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Review Method: Peer Reviewed
Abstract: The paper will present the basic empirical as well as theoretical assumptions for analysing the two markedly different socio-economic trajectories of those who migrated to Sweden and those who migrated within Greece and the different fates of the children of the two groups of migrants.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Review Method: Peer Reviewed
Abstract: For all the very obvious circumstantial differences between the Greek polis and a modern nation, there is little meaningful difference in the style of the thought which animates and defines these entities. Benedict Anderson's well-known definition of the modern instance applies equally well to the ancient comparandum; it is not just that the citizens of a given polis constituted themselves as an imagined community, but that they imagined themselves specifically as an inherently limited and sovereign political community. Moreover, these core political self-imaginings, with their distinctly modern resonance, were supplemented by a range of other identity sources, the most important of which have also played an identical role in the formation of modern national consciousness. These would include shared myths of origins, shared collective memories and a sense of a having a shared historic homeland, as well as a common economy, common legal rights and obligations, and a shared public culture believed to be distinct from all others. And while there is inevitably some difference in the techniques and media used in the ancient and modern worlds to encourage a sense of belonging to these imagined political communities, some even of these are strikingly similar: the invention of new traditions, the creation of symbolic spaces for the commemoration of national heroes and achievements, and the organization of the calendar around annual celebrations of national unity and fellowship. This paper examines the origins of national consciousness among the poleis of classical Greece (ca. 480-320 BC) and, in the process, highlights the enduring relevance of specific strategies employed by political leaders to bind together communities into durable political, social, and economic entities.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: "Macedonia" and "the Balkans" have become geopolitical terms that signify, respectively, mixed-up/impure and marginal/chaotic, often in far-distant geopolitical contexts from the original places but always reflecting a specific understanding of "Europe" and "Europeanness." Europe's "imperial legacy," therefore, at least in terms of some elements of geopolitical language, begins in Europe itself. Such representations, however, involve very particular readings of the original places of reference without which they could not "travel" elsewhere. Europe's Greek borderland in Macedonia has a geopolitical resonance the world over.

Publication Type: Poster
Abstract: This paper explores the nature of the European Union’s effect on the discourse surrounding Turkey in the Greek media between 1997 and 2004. It suggests that through its influence on discourse construction, EU membership has led to a reformulation of narratives regarding the bilateral relations between the two states which is imperative to the formulation of Greek perceptions of Turkey. It then argues that these perceptions- or narratives- constitute variables in the formulation of Greek foreign policy towards Turkey and are thus defining factors in the amelioration or deterioration of Greek-Turkish relations.The idea behind this paper stems from the premise that Europeanization of foreign policy has been under-researched in terms of its substantive and cognitive dimensions. Here it is attempted to make up for that gap by basing the main hypothesis on a constructivist understanding of foreign policy and by linking foreign policy discourses to discourses surrounding national identity and the role of the ‘other’ (Turkey) and the community (EU) in these discourses. The constructivist model proposed aims to take into account the fact that national interests are not given but socially constructed and mediated through societal tunnels of communication. It thus introduces the study of the media as a source of foreign policy change. On a second level, the paper draws on the concept of Europeanization to propose that the EU is able to influence non-state actors with the ability to alter dominant discourses and in particular the media. This hypothesis is tested on the Greek press during selected timeframes involving critical EU decisions regarding Turkey, within the period between 1997 when the Greek government vetoed Turkish accession and 2004, when the European Council officially decided to open accession negotiations with Turkey. Comparing qualitative media analysis derived from press releases and editorials surrounding European Councils which dealt with the issue of Turkish accession, conclusions are drawn regarding the link between the perceived Greek Europeanization and the alteration of the discourses surrounding Turkey. Hopefully the paper will contribute to bridging the gap between European and Foreign Policy studies, with Communication/Media studies and Social Psychology. In this sense it falls directly within the scope of this year’s ‘interdisciplinarity’ theme.