Ioannis Rigkos-Zitthen defends his PhD thesis at the Department of Political Science

PHD defence

Candidate

Ioannis Rigkos-Zitthen

Title

"Commoning in the Anthropocene. Responding to large-scale mining through practices of collective care. The case of Skouries, Halkidiki, Greece".

The thesis

The thesis will be published as an e-book which can be bought at Academic Books. Furthermore, the thesis can also be loaned from the Royal Danish Library.

Time and venue

Friday 2 September 2022 from 09:00-12:00 at Centre for Health and Society, Department of Political Science, Øster Farimagsgade 5, DK-1353 Copenhagen K., room 1.1.18. Kindly note that the defence will start precisely at 09:00.

The defence will also be available on Zoom.

Assessment committee

  • Professor Michele Betsill, Department of Political Science, University of Copenhagen (chair)
     
  • Senior Lecturer Meg Sherval, University of Newcastle (online via Zoom)
     
  • Associate Professor Alexandros Kioupkiolis, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki

Abstract

Responding to large-scale mining through practices of collective care aims to rethink the role of democracy in a geological epoch characterized by cataclysmic ecological and social crises for which humanity is considered responsible. The thesis’ main question is how to respond to Anthropocene-related problems while enriching democracy? The thesis invites us to think of commoning as practices of collective care that can renew democracy. The theoretical innovations are developed in dialogue with fieldwork research taking place in a local community in the north-eastern part of Greece (Skouries of Halkidiki), where democratic politics are challenged by large-scale extractivism, an Anthropocene-related problem. By exploring the theoretical concepts through a case study lens, the thesis aims to unearth a different kind of situated knowledge about commoning and its relation to democratic politics. The objective of this endeavour is to take the messy and complex character of the Anthropocene epoch seriously. The overall argument is that to enrich democratic politics in the Anthropocene, one must become attentive to values and diverse agencies and, from there, encourage forms of collective care that resist and subvert forms of being and care preoccupied with economic growth.