Events Calendar – British School at Athens

Greek Politics Specialist Group

Dr Effrosyni Charitopoulou (National and Kapodistrian University of Athens), “Type of Contact Matters: prosocial behaviour towards asylum seekers and the Syrian refugee crisis in Greece”

Abstract: Why do ingroup members help outgroup strangers? Focusing on the case of Greece in the context of the Syrian refugee crisis, I study behavioral motivations of host community members who offered assistance to asylum seekers. Drawing on an in-depth consideration of behavioral patterns and their variation, I assert that the type of intergroup contact significantly influences prosocial actions. The situational dynamics emerging as a function of the distance that separated host community members from asylum seekers when they came into contact determined the actions of the former, who, often even overrode their personal predispositions. More specifically, the ability to discern individuals, rather than groups, as well as the degree of emergency asylum seekers were facing at the time of contact led to dissimilar behavioral outcomes even among the same individuals. On this basis, I hint at the importance of not only quantifying intergroup contact, but also of qualitatively assessing it, when examining its role in intergroup relations. To develop this argument, I employ an extreme case methodology and draw on 37 in-depth interviews and broader ethnographic insights.

Bio: Effrosyni Charitopoulou is an Assistant Professor in Political Science at the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens. Her research interests lie in the field of political sociology. Specifically, she investigates dynamics that define intergroup relations, with a particular focus on local and migrant populations. She mostly uses ethnographic methods, but also employes quantitative research techniques.
She completed her doctoral dissertation at the University of Oxford (Nuffield College), with scholarships from the A.G. Leventis Foundation, the Onassis Foundation, and Nuffield College University of Oxford. Prior joining NKUA, she held research positions at the University of Oxford, Collegio Carlo Alberto, the European University Institute and Princeton University.

Hybrid lecture. Please note: this lecture will not be recorded

image: artwork Restricted Land, Giorgos Taxidis