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The dramatic increase of population movement toward the borders of European Union together with the closing of the central European borders trapped a high percentage of refugee children in Greece. The present narrative aims to steer awareness of Refugee Educational efforts in Greece. The author adopts a narrative inquiry in order to capture her own professional recollections during her work period in a camp in Athens. Her reflective accounts highlight the significant role of teachers and the challenges that they face in refugee education. The skills required and the main accomplishments of teachers are also discussed. The author's lived experiences are utilized here to present the complexity of refugees' education and, consequently, integration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The scope of this paper is to investigate the Greek 'path' to water privatization and its possible interconnections with the ongoing restructuring of the water sector on an EU and a global level. The paper starts with a contemporary, spatially-sensitive analysis of the expanding role of water multinationals, by focusing on water supply operators of the southern EU. Afterwards, it highlights the peculiarities of the 'Greek path' to private sector participation by studying the two most important Greek water companies, in the cities of Athens and Thessaloniki respectively. As found, these companies have partially, though successfully, been transformed according to the rules of the 'market-environmentalist' paradigm. The state drives the privatization effort, while at the same time, insufficiently regulates the activity of both companies. Based on the Greek case, the paper discusses whether the analytical tools offered by a critical approach, the 'accumulation-by-dispossession' thesis, can better interpret changes in water companies of the 'advanced-South'. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The expansion of urban ecosystems and climate change, both outcomes of massive lifestyle changes, contribute to a series of side effects such as environmental deterioration, spread of diseases, increased greenhouse gas emissions and introduction of invasive species. In the case of the Athens metropolitan area, an invasive mosquito species—the Asian tiger mosquito (Aedes albopictus)–has spread widely in the last decade. This spread is favoured within urban environments and is also affected by changing climatic trends. The Asian tiger mosquito is accompanied by risks of mosquito-borne diseases, greater nuisance levels, and increased expenses incurring for its confrontation. The main aims of this paper are (i) to estimate the various costs associated with their control of this invasive species, as well as its health and nuisance impacts, (ii) to evaluate the level of citizens’ well-being from averting these impacts and (iii) to record citizens’ and experts’ perceptions regarding alternative control measures. Evidence shows that experts tend to place a high value on mosquito control when associated with serious health risks, while citizens are more sensitive and concerned about the environmental impacts of control methods. The synthesis of results produced by the current study could act as a preliminary guide for the estimation of societal welfare from the confrontation of similar problems in the context of a complex ecosystem. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recent treatment of accommodation and arrival infrastructures for asylum seekers and refugees has fuelled international research on refugee reception policies in urban environments and on the consequences of related initiatives of the European Union and international organizations such as the UNHCR. Using Athens as a case study, this article provides empirical evidence to revive the theoretical treatment of the importance of arrival and accommodation infrastructures in urban areas in transition. We collected and compiled data from four sources: the 2011 population census, the 2018 ESTIA accommodation program and the UNHCR Site Management Support (SMS) Reports of Temporary Accommodation Sites and Reception and Identification Centres (RICs), and a primary survey of services for asylum seekers and refugees. After the geocoding of data, we calculate indices for key dimensions of the segregation of accommodated asylum seekers and foreign nationals. We discuss the findings, seeking to highlight how the location and the composition of accommodation infrastructures has been influenced by a wider process of urban change and adaptations to global forces, leading not only to the transformation of inner-city zones but also suburban and peri-urban areas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper focuses on the temporalities of camps and the ways in which abandonment is produced within them through the deployment of temporal bordering practices. It presents empirical ethnographic evidence, gathered between January and June 2017, from Skaramagas and Elaionas camps in Athens. Although intended as temporary humanitarian solutions, many migrants have remained in them for long periods, stuck in a state of temporariness. Camps have been studied extensively through the lens of biopolitics as spaces of abandonment and abjectification. More recently, a growing body of literature is highlighting the everyday micro-politics and tactics of belonging that take place within them. Drawing on the latter, I shed light on the temporal aspects of border control involved in camps, arguing that camps provide a temporal, rather than only spatial, technology that governs encamped migrants through the administration of their time. Thus, the camp governs the critical moment between reception and in/exclusion from the polity. Yet, as I show, within this condition of semi-permanence and semi-presence, camp residents, through the practice of everyday life, being present and visible, create places and give new meanings to existing ones. If the border is enacted through the imposed temporalities of the camp, then its subversion can be found in these everyday place-making tactics. Looking into these micro-practices, this paper contributes to the above debates by exploring camps as temporal technologies of control. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The measurement of victimisation was rare and sporadic in Greece until 2005 when it was included in the EU International Crime Survey (EUICS). Many findings are highly interesting as for example those concerning corruption. There are also high ratings of feeling unsafe among the inhabitants of Greece, in particular those in Athens, in spite of the relatively low rates of their victimisation. This paper focuses on this point, trying to reveal the factors which could explain this 'paradox'. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recent risk assessment studies have shown that high outdoor NO2 levels observed in residential areas contribute to increased respiratory and cardiovascular diseases and mortality. Detailed information on present NO2 levels as well as predictions of NO2 concentrations corresponding to reduced NO x levels in urban areas are very useful to decision and policy makers in order to protect the public health. In the present paper, monitoring stations of the Athens network are initially classified into two main groups, traffic affected and urban background, using effectively a criterion based on the ratio of annual mean NO:NO2 concentrations. Two empirical methodologies are then considered and compared for assessing the effect of different NO x levels on the attainment of the annual NO2 air quality standard at urban-background locations in the Athens area. An interesting finding is that these two methodologies, one more general and one both year and site dependent, give similar results for the specific study area and can be applied alternatively based on the length of available concentration time series. The results show that in order to meet the EU annual mean NO2 objective at all the urban-background locations of the Athens area, annual NO x concentrations should be reduced to approximately 60μgm−3, requiring NO x emission reductions of up to 30%. An analysis of the health implications of the currently observed NO2 levels is conducted, based on a dose–response relationship, and is coupled with available health-related data for the Athens area. This analysis suggests that if NO2 concentrations were reduced to the levels of the annual EU air quality standard, then a decrease of hospital admissions of up to 2.6% would be observed, depending on the levels of NO2 measured at different monitoring sites of the Athens conurbation. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

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• PM 10 Dust Related Exceedances (DRE) were identified in four Greek cities. • Dust loadings in PM 10 during DRE were higher in Athens. • None of the DRE would have occurred without the dust contributions. • Dust intrusions were mainly originated directly from the Sahara desert. • The subtraction of DRE will help the Greek authorities to reach EU PM 10 standards. African dust intrusions in the atmosphere of continental Greek cities have been previously associated with health impacts. This paper aimed to estimate the participation of Saharan dust in PM 10 episodes which occurred in four cities of continental Greece: Athens, Thessaloniki, Larisa and Ioannina, during the years 2012–2017. Exceedances of the European Union (EU) daily PM 10 concentration limit at background sampling sites situated in the four cities were examined for possible dust contributions with Dust Regional Atmospheric Model (DREAM). The participation of regional background emissions and dust in PM 10 Dust Related Exceedances (DRE) was estimated by an approach based on the daily PM 10 concentrations measured 15 days before and 15 days after the Saharan dust event. The average dust contribution in DRE was higher in Athens in comparison with the other cities. In addition, backward air mass trajectories indicated that the great majority of the studied DRE was triggered by direct dust intrusions from North Africa, whereas some rare cases of dust recirculation were also detected. All the studied DRE at the four cities wouldn't have occurred without the presence of the African dust, thus the suggested approach could be a fast and inexpensive tool in order to isolate the reduced actual number of exceedances attributed to local/regional emissions. Consequently, air quality management can be simplified through the implemented method. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the following years all European Union member states should bring into force national laws on the energy performance of buildings. Moreover, university campus dormitories are buildings of great importance, due to their architectural characteristics and their social impact. In this study, the energy performance along with the indoor environmental conditions of a dormitory of a university has been analysed. The in situ measurements included temperature, relative humidity, concentrations of carbon dioxide, total volatile organic compounds, and electrical consumption; lastly, the energy signature of the whole building was investigated. The study focused on the summer months, during which significantly increased thermal needs of the building were identified. The ground floor was found to be the floor with the highest percentage of thermal conditions within the comfort range, and the third floor the lowest. Lastly, a significant correlation between electrical consumption and the outdoor temperature was presented, highlighting the lack of thermal insulation. Overall, it was clear that a redesign of the cooling and heating system, the installation of a ventilation system, and thermal insulation are essential for improving the energy efficiency of this building. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]