Organizational Precarity : An Anthropological study of a Civil Society Organization in austerity-ridden Greece

Sammanfattning: This study examines a Greek civil society organization, which is struggling to cope with the precarity caused by the environment of crisis. By looking into the austerity that prevails in Greece, I aim to discuss the connection between the Greek society and the organization, as both of them are struggling with the consequences of the crisis which brings them into a precarious position. The methods used during the fieldwork were mainly participant observation in the space of the organization, and interviews as well as informal conversations with the members and recipients of the Solidarity Association. By analyzing their discourses introduced in the thesis through ethnographic stories, I claim that the interplay between precarious labor and precarious life transforms the organization into a space of silence. I suggest that this deadening of life should not only be seen as an outcome of the long period of living under harsh conditions, but also as one of the factors which brings the organization into dissolution. By looking at the disintegration of the Solidarity Association, I discuss that its solidarian culture turns into a philanthropic one due to individualistic behaviors which I argue are one of the outcomes of people’s precarious living. This thesis focuses more on what precarity does rather on what it is and it should be seen as a contribution to the understanding of the influence that precarity has on an organization placed in the context of contemporary austerity-ridden Greece.