By Dimitris Dalakoglou,
Principal Investigator of infra-demos

Almost two years after its initial idea, and 16 months after the start  of fieldwork research on wind turbine industry and democracy on the island of Evia, the last film of infra-demos, titled 'Colony' by Spyros Gerousis and Dimitris Dalakoglou has been finalised and is ready to be released in a few weeks. 

During the production and the research for the three infra-demos documentary films, that deal with infrastructures and democracy in Greece, we faced various forms of harassments and threats with specific orientation. 

When something is repeated, it stops being a coincidence. Among other problems, we were subjected twice to mysterious burglaries. The first time cameras and memory cards with material were stolen. The second  burglary, occurred in the summer 2022, during this one the entire desktop computer we use for editing the film was stolen, together with the backup memory cards of the material. As it is known among film-makers, the final versions of the films are very heavy files that cannot be effectively backed up. The final edited version of the film was destroyed beyond repair the week before its final release.

This second incident was a professional job, as the apartment was broken in at a very critical moment for the entire project and as we were coordinating over the phone and private messages, sharing our worries and related information about release dates etc. The thieves, broke in while our member was asleep, stealing our expensive and sizeable film-making equipment and our invaluable material, suprispingly without waking up anyone. The incidents were reported to the Greek police with no result.  

After lots of hard work, we managed to gain back parts of the material, find equipment and re-edit this final documentary film. We did feel fear, stress, worry and desperation, but we came through these obstacles.

After five years studying  infrastructures and democracy in Greece and other European countries, we can say that  infrastructures in capitalism remain largely a profit oriented machine that does not appreciate the unblackboxing of the relationships of capitalist exploitation incorporated in their management and function. 

I have to make the statement that in the case we encounter a third burglary or any other harassment and harm, this time our final film is well backed up and all security measures for the protection of our film and our personal protection have been taken. The release of the film does not depend only on us anymore, but it will be released on the planned date, with or without us. 

infra-demos.net organised together with University of Barcelona department of Anthropology a panel in EASA biannual conference under the title 'Infrastructuring solidarity' with totally 9 papers.

The PI of infra-demos Prof. Dimitris Dalakoglou was also one of the plenary speakers of the conference in the plenary panel titled  'Shared Spaces and Common Good' where his presentation was titled 'Shared vs Commons?' 

infra-demos' PI, Prof. Dimitris Dalakoglou  will present findings of the project and will participate in the Common(ing) Struggles workshop at St Gallen University between 2nd and 4th of May.

For more information in the workshop click the link 

infra-demos' PI Dimitris Dalakoglou and its doctoral researcher Christos Giovanopoulos co-organise with Dr Roger Sansi of Barcelona University department of Anthropology the panel Infrastructuring Solidarity and the Commons: Prefigurative socio-technical articulations of a post-capitalist world Infrastructuring Solidarity and the Commons: Prefigurative socio-technical articulations of a post-capitalist world at EASA 2022 Conference in Belfast. 

The abstract fo the panel is the following: 
In the light of the 4th industrial revolution the ‘infrastructural turn’ in anthropology has effectively un-black-boxed the uneven relations of power embedded in the techno-material domains of infrastructure. At the same time, in the context of crisis and the retreat of the welfare state, examples of grassroots solidarity, mutual-aid and the commons proliferated in diverse political contexts, socio-technical settings –analogue, digital and phygital- and geographies – local, global and cosmolocal, urban or not- capturing the attention of social scientists. In this course the notion of infrastructure has been established as an analytical category to understand enabling or hindering habitats of sociality and belonging, while solidarity and the commons have been examined as prefigurative examples of hope and/in post-capital modes of social organization. In addition, inroads have been made in the ways techno-material arrangements condition human and social agency, in synch with the permeation of ubiquitous technologies and know-how in everyday life and environs.
Yet, the interaction between infrastructure, solidarity and the commons has remained mostly in the margins of those debates. While the qualities of social movements of solidarity and the commons as infrastructure that induces social change have been examined, the ways in which the qualities of solidarity and the commons effect or are wired into the techno-material domain of infrastructure has escaped attention. Alike, while the synergetic and cross-scale potential embedded in digital technologies has been approached (e.g. digital commons, platform cooperativism), the ways in which emerging, or existing, infrastructure facilitates, or hinders, solidarity and commoning remains under-studied.
Click to see the full panel with the papers to be presented 

 Infrastructural Contestation, Harm and Infrastructuring:
​An infra-demos workshop,

Friday,
June 11, 15:00-17:00 (GMT+2)

A Zoom presentation and discussion with infra-demos team

Dimitris Dalakoglou
Yannis Kallianos
Christos Giovanopoulos 
Spyros Gerousis

In the context of the events organized by the VU Department of Anthropology for its MOBB (Mobility, Beliefs, Belonging) week. The NWO-Vidi project infra-demos.net which is based at the VU department of social and cultural anthropology will present in a workshop some of its findings and research. 

The principal investigator of infra-demos, Prof. Dimitris Dalakoglou and the research fellows Yannis Kallianos and Christos Giovanopoulos, will discuss several aspects of the project. The mini-documentary 'Wasting the West' will be screened and the anthropologist and film-maker of the project Spyros  Gerousis will also be present.

Join Zoom Meeting:
D. Dalakoglou - is inviting you to a scheduled Zoom meeting.

Topic: D. Dalakoglou -'s Zoom Meeting
Time: Jun 11, 2021 04:00 PM Athens

Join Zoom Meeting
https://vu-live.zoom.us/j/99251534701?pwd=NnVSNDBsUllhQmgrQlNrWUlaMjc1Zz09

Meeting ID: 992 5153 4701
Passcode: 807851
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Meeting ID: 992 5153 4701
Passcode: 807851
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On Thursday, 6th of February the PI of infra-demos presented on the behalf of the team the paper 'Defining and Classifying Infrastructural Contestation: Towards a Synergy Between Anthropology and Data Science' in Wageningen University Data Sciences Week.