Urbanisation,crisis and urban policy in Greece

Urbanization trends in Greece since the 1950s are reviewed, with particular reference to the problems that arose in the 1970s. The authors examine the two major attempts at state intervention in urban planning during this period. They conclude with an overview of possible policy interventions that could resolve some of the problems related to urbanization.     

THE REVALUING OF URBAN SPACE: THE GREEN PAPER FOR EUROPEAN CITIES AND THE CASE OF GREECE

In summer 1990, the Commission of the European Communities published a "Green Paper" on the urban environment as a first step toward establishing an integrated policy for European cities, focusing on the revaluing of public space whose degradation is considered a symptom of a deep-seated developmental and environmental crisis. This article addresses the questions raised by the Green Paper: the needs to which it responds, and the results to be expected; the extent to which the proposed themes cover a "full range of difficulties facing Europe's conurbations," given the diversity of urban space in the old continent. Finally, it considers the paper's relevance for Greek cities: this highlights the existence of non-discussed city typologies within the single European space, which means that the concept of the European city should be carefully re-examined and based on the social and cultural plurality and complexity of the European cities, rather than stressing the existence of a single city-type. The Green Paper, when seen not as a text of generalizing assumptions or an instrument for action, may very well act positively to open a debate that will reveal and answer the specificities and the problems of each city.