Synthesis: Review of Modern Greek Studies

Volume 2, Number 1 (1997)

Synthesis: Review of Modern Greek Studies
Contents of Volume 2, Number 1 (1997)

Foreword

Articles

Book Reviews Recent Research Conference Reports

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Foreword

Volume 2, Number 1 (1997)

We are delighted to present the first issue of volume 2 of Synthesis. The journal continues to be the result of the collaborative effort of young scholars whose research interests encompass different facets of modern Greece. We are pleased to announce that starting with this issue, Synthesis is now co-published with the Hellenic Observatory of the European Institute at the London School of Economics and Political Science. Unfortunately, we have had to bid farewell to three Editorial Board members (Apostolia Rizothanassi, Panagiota Tzamourani and Paris Yeros) whose presence and work made an important difference to the development of Synthesis.

In this issue we have published three papers from different research fields. In the first, Yiorghos Leventis writes about ‘The Politics of the Cypriot Left in the Inter-War Period, 1918-1940’. Using well documented material, he presents the early history of the Communist Party in Cyprus. In the second, ‘Mastering the ‘Jungle’: On the interactional construction of expertise in a Greek television audience discussion programme’ Marianthi Patrona illustrates, from a socio-linguistic perspective, how the participants in a Greek televised ‘talk-show’ construct their arguments and reflect their cultural attitudes with respect to the notion of expertise. The third paper, ‘A Certain Idea of Greece: Perceptions of the Past and European Integration’, written by Georgios Varouxakis, highlights the relations between Greece and its European Union partners with respect to the teaching of Greek history and politics towards community integration.

The section on book reviews also highlights the multidisciplinary scope of our journal. Our reviewers have assessed books in sociology, history, gender issues and nationalism. The section on recent research includes PhD theses, articles and books that we hope you will find useful in expanding your own reading interests in the field. Finally, we hope that our section on conference reports offers a useful account of the proceedings to those unable to attend.

With each coming issue of Synthesis we intend to expand the breadth of the material presented and improve the quality of the journal. To this end, we always encourage and welcome the submission of papers, book reviews and conference reports. We are grateful to all our contributors and our subscribers who have honoured us with their support. Thank you for supporting the provision of ‘a multidisciplinary vehicle for the presentation of research and the exchange of ideas in the study of modern Greece’.

Athanasia Pouloudi
Simeon Tsalicoglou

Editors

 

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Editorial Board

Editorial Team

Synthesis: Review of Modern Greek Studies Volume 2, Issue 1

Editors Associate Editor
Athanasia Pouloudi and Simeon Tsalicoglou Spyros Economides
Assistant Editor
Michalis Sanidas

Editorial Board

Olga Christodoulaki Julia Chrissostalis Apostolis Dimitropoulos
Vassilis Fouskas Emmanuel Galatoulas Lambis Kondonis
Athanasios Lykogiannis Yannos Mitsos Irini Moustaki
Katerina Nicolopoulou Christos Papatheodorou Anna Paraskeuopoulou
Vasiliki Riga Paul Strong Anna Triandafyllidou

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Advisory Board

Members and affiliations

Philip Carabott King's College London
Richard Clogg Oxford University
Kevin Featherstone Bradford University
Howard Machin London School of Economics
Mark Mazower Sussex University
Elias Mossialos London School of Economics
Nicos Mouzelis London School of Economics
George Petrochilos Coventry University
Angeliki Poulymenakou Athens University of Economics
Geoffrey Pridham Bristol University
Thanasis Sfikas Central Lancashire University
Stelios Stavridis Reading University
Dimitris Tziovas Birmingham University

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Abstracts of the refereed papers published in this issue

The Politics of the Cypriot Left in the Inter-War Period: 1918-1940

Yiorghos Leventis

Abstract
The principal objective of this article is to explore the origins of the Communist Party of Cyprus (KKK) and forerunner of the Progressive Party of the Working People (AKEL), to account for the shifts in its policy regarding the Cypriot national question. A secondary objective is to consider the way in which the British administration on the island reacted to the emergence of communism as a factor in local politics. To these ends, the article begins by tracing the KKK’s first hesitant steps into the local political arena, which had been dominated by the higher Greek Orthodox clergy and other enosist politicians. It also discusses the inability of the KKK to achieve an organisation on an island-wide basis and explains the dramatic shifts in its policy. The article concludes with a note on methodology.

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Mastering the 'Jungle': On the Interactional Coinstruction of Expertise in a Greek Television Audience Discussion Programme

Marianthi Patrona

Abstract
This paper draws on the sociolinguistic notion of framing to explore definitions of expertise as emerging through ongoing interaction in an institutional setting of a Greek television audience discussion programme. It will be argued that the interaction as a whole is framed in terms of two competing domains of discourse, namely religion vs. science, with a resulting ambiguity over who the expert is with respect to the topic of religious miracles. By so designing their contributions, participants variously manipulate, access, or appropriate these discursive domains in line with their communicative goals. In this context ‘science’ (epistimi), and ‘scientist’ (epistimonas), in the traditional empiricist sense of the terms, constitute overriding notions in the discussion and are raised to ideals that ‘expert’ participants aspire to. As a result definitions of expertise emerge as a conflict of frames through continuous negotiation over which frame is dominant.

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A Certain Idea of Greece: Perceptions of the Past and European Integration

Georgios Varouxakis

Abstract
This article attempts to illustrate some ways in which collective perceptions of the past, formed particularly through the content of historical education in Greek schools, affect contemporary Greek political culture as far as attitudes towards ‘Europe’, Greece’s place in the European Union, and the country’s relations with its EU partners are concerned. It is argued that certain aspects of historical education in Greek schools have contributed greatly to the development of a naïve and counter-productive outlook which manifested itself plainly in the early 1990s in the context of the controversy surrounding the name of the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia. Finally, the prospects of potential improvements on the outlook described are briefly assessed.

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Last modified: 17th March 1998