Collective identity under reconstruction: The case of West Piraeus

The present study of collective identities of the workers of West Piraeus attempts to surpass the dilemma regarding the nature of collective identity (i.e. whether an individual or intersubjective accomplishment) by separating the two levels of analysis before merging them into a common account of the transformation of collective identities with regard to their constitutive elements of class and the “national self”. The main argument in what follows is inextricably linked to those shifts and their manifestations, which relate closely to two central notions of this volume: the politics of nostalgia and the politics of solidarity (Karner and Weicht, introduction). 

Simply put, the new collective identities which are currently taking shape in the area of West Piraeus within a broader national context of economic hardship, social turmoil, and felt injustice  encompasses hybrid structures of nostalgia and solidarity and is therefore associated with an unusual variety of attitudes ranging from cynicism, exclusivism, nationalism and racism to collectivization, radicalism, militancy and solidarity.