Rural housing precariousness calls for spatial and multi-scalar research. Understanding the mechanisms behind these challenges —and identifying how rural families build resilience— is critical for developing effective housing policies that promote social protection and inclusion. The paper examines the lived experiences of rural households in Greece, facing both visible and invisible forms of poverty and housing exclusion, through a comparative three-case study approach. Participants’ narratives identify four aspects of housing precariousness in rural areas: i) substandard housing and living conditions, ii) spatial segregation/exclusion, iii) facing foreclosure or reliance on relatives, and iv) high rents and declining housing stock. The research also sheds light to the structural and institutional dimensions of contemporary rural housing precariousness, and underscores the limitations of familial and community solidarity in rural Greece amidst multiple crises. The paper advocates for a different mode of governance in rural housing—one that takes into account local geographies and sociocultural specificities, as well as gender, ethnicity, ageing, and intersecting social identities.

Food sovereignty discourse is gaining attention, yet it is open to contradicting interpretations as to its capacity to address systemic injustices of the corporate food regimes. In our attempt to contribute to a better understanding of food sovereignty and promote awareness within a hegemonic food system that is hostile to alternative economies, we acknowledge that a radical shift is needed in the way we imagine, frame and narrativize our food system and our role within it. Drawing from both global social movements and the rise of social and solidarity initiatives in crisis-ridden Greece reclaiming local and autonomous food systems, we rely on three concepts to develop knowledge co-creation: food sovereignty understood as the universal right to food, food commoning practices, and participatory research processes for food sustainability. We proceed further with the creation of a ‘Training of Trainers’ team engaging instructors involved in both formal and non-formal education in Greece to co-design a game-based educational tool on food sovereignty through serious gaming workshops. Key findings that emerge from this participatory research project include: the development of a shared language on food that questioned power inequalities; the idea of a community both autonomous and interdependent so as to achieve food sovereignty; and the role of collective imaginaries in allowing for diverse economies and alternative visions to emerge. Participation in a process of collective reflection challenged existing stereotypes, reimagined economy and community development and proved to be, in itself, a transformative approach to knowledge and an act of social change.

Poverty and housing precariousness are largely overlooked in rural studies. Cultural stereotypes of happier, healthier and frugal rural life, strong community ties and solidarity have idealized the rural as a locus of resilience, concealing poverty that several groups are facing. This article presents the results and societal impact of the POVE.R.RE. research project in Greece. By shedding light on three predominantly rural- case study- areas, with different socio-geographic contexts and using mixed methods and participatory approach, the research aims at highlighting all factors contributing to poverty, deprivation and housing insecurity. The different profiles of rural poor, the lived experiences of deprivation but also coping strategies are articulated. Evidence supports the declining small-medium family farms suffering from economic crisis, climate change, and energy poverty. Increased inequalities, housing precariousness and higher living cost due to land deprivation, urban sprawl, and tourism gentrification also contribute to rural poverty. Informal and short-term family networks and sporadic bottom-up initiatives are filling public services gaps and limited policies. The overall social impact of the project (albeit recent) is the fact that reveals the complexity and hidden forms of rural poverty, challenges public narratives and highlights the need for localized rural welfare policies beyond the “benefits trap".

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Recognition of the link between the origin of local food, farming practices and their territorial settings is important in increasing consumers' trust and perceived value of quality schemes. Using the concepts of social learning and Participatory Guarantee Systems (PGS), this study aims to strengthen consumers' knowledge regarding local food and its territorial anchoring, by associating product quality with territorial attributes while facilitating consumer participation in the guarantee process. First, a total of 199 online questionnaires assessing consumer preferences for local food showed limited awareness and knowledge of practices connecting products, production processes and quality attributes. Additionally, based on an existing PGS for a local cheese with (Thessaly, Greece), we combined consumer expectations and producers' guarantees through farm visits and a participatory focus group facilitated by interactive visualisation technology. Results showed that visualised knowledge of intangible and tangible territorial resources raised consumers' awareness and appreciation of specific quality attributes while helping co-construct shared meanings related to the place of production, local know-how and historical and cultural practices. Thus, it appears that this approach further prepared the ground for consumers' future 'physical' or 'virtual' engagement in a bottom-up collaboration for the ongoing negotiation of trust and social control built on trust.

The article discusses the role of alternative food networks (AFN) in local food supply, food sovereignty and the preservation of peri-urban agricultural production especially in metropolitan areas. Within a context of prolonged economic and financial crisis, a growing engagement of local public and national institutions in short food supply chains helps to revitalize the local economy, strengthen rural-urban linkages and contributes to sustainable development. The analysis focuses on how newly emerging AFNs reflect the contemporary dynamics of agriculture, food-chain and land use in rural peri-urban areas of Athens. By examining the links between the current economic, environmental, social and institutional challenges the discussion focuses on the potential of formal and informal civic practices to enhance revitalization of peri-urban agriculture and support institutional change policies through a more agro-ecological approach of the metropolitan food system. A mixed method approach was used, comprising qualitative and quantitative research as well as spatial data collection and mapping representations. The analysis shows that bottom-up claims for food security had a favorable impact on the promotion of sustainable food production, consumption and distribution systems and a transformative effect on food-related public policies and the institutional framework. Gradual legitimization of many informal alternative retail channels and self-production schemes in time of crises were able to strengthen the links between urban and peri-urban environment building agricultural 'pockets' of resilience to food crisis. However, poor land management and zoning control are the major constraints to sustainable agricultural production and farmers' resilience in the Athens metropolitan area.

New forms of urban gardening are gaining a momentum in cities transforming the conventional use and functions of open green and public space. They often take place through informal and temporary (re)use of vacant land consisting part of greening strategies or social inclusion policy through new modes of land use management, green space governance and collaborative practices. Particular emphasis is placed on shifted meanings of the notion of open public space by referring to its openness to a diversity of uses and users that claim it and relates to the questions of access rights, power relations among actors, negotiations and the so called right to use and re-appropriate land. By using examples drawn from the Greek and Swiss case, this chapter underlines differences and similarities in urban gardening practices, social and institutional contexts, collaborative governance patterns, motivations, levels of institutionalisation, openness and inclusiveness of space. More specifically it calls attention to the critical role of the temporary nature of these initiatives in relation to their multifunctional, spatial and socio-political aspects that affect new configurations of urban green areas and public space as well as related planning practices.

In the context of urban densification and central urban areas' lack of open spaces, new forms of small-scale urban gardening practices have emerged. These gardening practices respond to urban pressures and open new modes of green space governance, presenting alternative and multifunctional ways to manage and revitalise cities. Focusing on the case of Geneva, the article unfolds two levels of discussion. On the one hand-and with reference to the theorist Habermas-it examines how multiple actors with different interests interplay and cooperate with each other in order to negotiate over open space, while discussing implications for local politics and planning. On the other hand, it describes how these negotiations result in new, innovative, and hybrid forms of public green space. The main findings indicate emerging forms of collaboration, partnerships, and governance patterns that involve public and private sectors and increase participation by civil society actors. Cooperation amongst several interested groups and the collective reinvention of public urban spaces increase these spaces' accessibility for multiple users and actors, as well as present possibilities for alternative and diversified uses and activities. This might underline the hypothesis that future cities will be governed in less formalised ways, and that urban forms will be created through spontaneous, temporary, mobile, and adaptive negotiation processes.

The presence of municipal sport organizations indicates the priority, which is given from the local authority in the well-being of citizens. On the other hand, it constitutes the basis upon which sports are built in national level. The whole body of the organizations has an organizational structure. The organizational structure is a system of registration of employment and the relations that govern them. The basic dimensions are: concentration, complexity and formalization. The purpose of this study is to confirm or contradict the proposed, based on the literature, model of organizational structure in municipal sports organizations. The Sport Commission Organization Structure Survey questionnaire was used in order to conduct it. The participants were 100 Greek municipal sport organizations. Factor analysis detected four factors: departmentalization, concentration, specialization and formalization. The results confirmed partially the proposed model. The 'Cronbach a' was used to calculate the reliability factors ranged from .40 to .70. The confirmatory factor analysis was used to determine the adjustment or not to the new model in the data. Based on the model of the confirmatory factor analysis it is revealed that it was slightly acceptable. Finally, although there was a marginal confirmation of the new model, it appears that questions of this survey require further improvement.

Cet ouvrage analyse les enjeux de gestion des espaces agricoles et naturels menaces par l’urbanisation sur le littoral mediterraneen. La comparaison d’etudes de cas situees en Espagne, en France, en Italie, en Albanie, en Grece et en Tunisie montre la transformation des paysages agricoles et naturels, les jeux d’acteurs qui les sous-tendent et les principaux defis que leur urbanisation engendre pour l’amenagement. Apres une periode de tolerance des constructions et d’amenagements intensifs, les pouvoirs publics et la societe civile prennent conscience que la preservation de l’agriculture et de la nature se justifierait d’un point de vue paysager, social, productif et environnemental. Pourtant, leur protection se heurte toujours a la speculation fonciere, car l’urbanisation et le tourisme balneaire demeurent les principaux moteurs du developpement economique. Face a des mesures de protection reglementaires delicates a mettre en oeuvre, d’autres voies de valorisation des espaces agricoles et naturels sont envisagees, mais elles n’ont pour l’instant qu’un impact limite. Au-dela des villes et des implantations balneaires, l’attention portee dans cet ouvrage aux espaces agricoles et naturels invite a repenser la gestion du littoral mediterraneen en relation etroite avec ses arriere-pays.

Cet ouvrage analyse les enjeux de gestion des espaces agricoles et naturels menaces par l’urbanisation sur le littoral mediterraneen. La comparaison d’etudes de cas situees en Espagne, en France, en Italie, en Albanie, en Grece et en Tunisie montre la transformation des paysages agricoles et naturels, les jeux d’acteurs qui les sous-tendent et les principaux defis que leur urbanisation engendre pour l’amenagement. Apres une periode de tolerance des constructions et d’amenagements intensifs, les pouvoirs publics et la societe civile prennent conscience que la preservation de l’agriculture et de la nature se justifierait d’un point de vue paysager, social, productif et environnemental. Pourtant, leur protection se heurte toujours a la speculation fonciere, car l’urbanisation et le tourisme balneaire demeurent les principaux moteurs du developpement economique. Face a des mesures de protection reglementaires delicates a mettre en oeuvre, d’autres voies de valorisation des espaces agricoles et naturels sont envisagees, mais elles n’ont pour l’instant qu’un impact limite. Au-dela des villes et des implantations balneaires, l’attention portee dans cet ouvrage aux espaces agricoles et naturels invite a repenser la gestion du littoral mediterraneen en relation etroite avec ses arriere-pays.

Cette communication aborde les questions du devenir des agricultures periurbaines et de leur contribution au developpement durable des villes a travers la viticulture, specialisation historique de beaucoup de regions mediterraneennes, ayant acquis une forte reputation viti-vinicole mais menacee par une tres forte pression de l'urbanisation, particulierement sur le littoral. Ces territoires periurbains du littoral mediterraneen connaissent une dynamique demographique soutenue, un developpement important des infrastructures de communication et de tourisme et une concentration d'activites economiques non agricoles qui ont comme consequences: une augmentation des prix des terres, le morcellement du foncier, la diminution des terres agricoles, l’augmentation de la pluriactivite et l’incitation de strategies speculatives, ayant comme risque la disparition de leurs vignobles emblematiques. L’analyse est menee a partir de deux cas concrets, dans la plaine de Messogheia, a l'est d'Athenes, et autour de l’agglomeration de Montpellier. Elle etudie les capacites de resistance (performances) et les formes d'adaptation de la viticulture face aux mutations socio-economiques et spatiales des zones d’etude, qui restent encore (pour combien de temps ?) relativement agricoles et rurales (paysage de vignobles et d’oliviers, densites faibles). L'objectif est de faire ressortir des points importants concernant les dynamiques de la viticulture periurbaine et leur diversite dans les deux territoires : - Sur le plan agricole : transformations des exploitations viticoles et valorisation des productions agricoles (innovations, diversification, production de qualite, dynamisme des caves) ; - A propos de l’environnement institutionnel et social (politiques agriurbaines et projets de territoire locaux, engagement politique et implication des agriculteurs).