The dragon’s head or Athens’ sacrifice zone? Spatiotemporal disjuncture, logistical disruptions, and urban infrastructural justice in Piraeus port, Greece
Author(s)
Apostolopoulou, Evangelia
Type
Journal Article
Abstract
Piraeus Port is the biggest port in Greece and ranks among the world’s largest passenger ports. By drawing on four years of in-depth ethnographic research and a deep familiarity with the area, I aim to elucidate the paradoxical juxtaposition between the allure of prosperity and rapid growth, intricately interwoven with the expansion of port and logistical infrastructures, and the concurrent escalation of adverse consequences for human and nonhuman life in the urban landscape. Bringing together literature on logistics and sacrifice zones, I introduce the notion of spatiotemporal disjuncture, to shed light on the coexistence of divergent realities within a single locale, rooted in the deliberate obfuscation of everyday truths inherent to these evolving infrastructural spaces. I conclude by emphasizing the necessity of placing the concept of urban infrastructural justice at the forefront of contemporary urban scholarship, both as a theoretical framework and a political demand capable of addressing infrastructural inequities exacerbated by the logistical revolution of the twenty-first century and fostering a collective imagination for radically different urban futures within and beyond port cities.
Date Issued
2024-12-03
Date Acceptance
2025-11-04
Citation
Urban Geography, 2024
ISSN
0272-3638
Publisher
Taylor and Francis Group
Journal / Book Title
Urban Geography
Copyright Statement
© 2024 The Author(s). Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/), which permits non-commercial re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited, and is not altered, transformed, or built upon in any way. The terms on which this article has been published allow the posting of the Accepted Manuscript in a repository by the author(s) or with their consent.
Subjects
Social Sciences
Geography
Urban Studies
Urban infrastructural justice
sacrifice zones
Belt and Road Initiative
logistics
port cities
VIOLENCE
GLOBALIZATION
Publication Status
Published online
Date Publish Online
2024-12-03