Neither ordinary nor global: a reflection on the ‘extra-ordinary’ expansion of Athens

Abstract

As part of the debate on Mediterranean urbanities in between ‘ordinary’ and ‘global’ cities, the present paper proposes a reflection on Athens’ long-term expansion seen as a paradigmatic example of urban development in southern Europe. The article debates economic restructuring, demographic processes, and social changes taken as determinants of the shift in the city’s morphology towards urban dispersion. By reconnecting socioeconomic dynamics into a multidisciplinary perspective, the author engages in a debate on the future of large Mediterranean cities in between settlement expansion and crisis.

Keywords

• urban morphology
• compactness
• economic restructuring
• social change
• crisis
• southern Europe