Athens is a city that exists as an idea, inseparable from its own mythology. At the same time, however, it is a lived experience, not only for its residents but also for a much larger segment of the population that has had, or continues to maintain, some kind of connection with it. After all, in a country like Greece, where almost half the population is concentrated in the capital, the metropolitan center inevitably leaves its mark on people’s lives and perceptions.
At the same time, like every metropolitan enclave in today’s interconnected world, Athens is transformed by its own contradictions. It is a city that extends far beyond the boundaries of the municipality bearing its name or its urban area, but it is also a place where discomfort coexists with charm and chaos with order. Ultimately, despite its problems, Athens continues to attract people while also forging a relationship of “forced love” with those who have chosen to live there or have found themselves doing so.
It is from this perspective that we can approach some of the key findings of the Metron Analysis survey, presented at To Vima’s highly interesting conference, aptly titled “Dialogues for Athens: From Myth to the Modern City.” The survey naturally focuses on the city as it exists today, although its present cannot escape the gravitational pull of its mythology. It also examines the perceptions and image of Athens held not only by its residents but also by people living elsewhere in the country, precisely because of the city’s wider reach.
One initial observation concerns the relative asymmetry in these perceptions, which points to the greater burden of life in the metropolis. For example, across the population as a whole, people believe that living conditions where they reside have remained the same (36%) or deteriorated (40%), rather than improved (24%), in recent years. This may be understandable in an era of successive crises and uncertainty. Among residents of the Athens metropolitan area, which for the purposes of this survey encompasses the entire Attica region, however, the perception of deterioration is even stronger, while the sense that conditions have improved is correspondingly weaker.
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Looking more specifically at Athens, we can distinguish between the aspects of the city generally viewed positively and those viewed negatively, and examine how they are rated. Respondents were asked to score these characteristics on a scale from 1 to 10, where 1 meant that a characteristic did not describe Athens at all and 10 meant that it described the city perfectly. The aim was to identify which characteristics were seen as Athens’ greatest strengths and which were considered its most significant shortcomings.
When it comes to the positive aspects, mythology and history reign supreme: 85% strongly agree (giving a score of 7 to 10) that culture and history are the characteristics that best describe Athens. The city’s contemporary side also features prominently: social life, cited by 76%, and educational and employment opportunities, cited by 73%, are also seen as defining features of a metropolis that never sleeps and can still open up new horizons in life.
Yet quality of life ranks remarkably low on this list, with only 25% considering it characteristic of life in Athens. This is a finding worth keeping in mind as we proceed. Indeed, the responses of residents of Attica and those living in the rest of the country show no significant differences on this point.
At the opposite end of the spectrum, the negative aspects of the Athenian metropolis largely concern objective conditions: insecurity and crime (62%); the deterioration of the natural environment (60%), taking into account the effects of the climate crisis and wildfires that have stripped the surrounding forests of vegetation; followed by the cost of living and housing, transportation, overtourism and other issues.
All these factors, however, point toward a subjective concern at the top of the rankings: 66% believe that, above all, Athens’ most negative characteristic is the stress and psychological strain it causes. Moreover, across all these dimensions, residents of Attica express more strongly negative views than people living elsewhere in the country. This difference clearly indicates that the lived experience of the city is even more burdensome.
Taking all this into account, it ultimately seems logical that Athens, as an idea, is considered to fall short of the corresponding “idea” of a European city, however one might define such a city today. Around one in three respondents believe Athens has nothing to envy about other European cities, but the remaining two in three think it still has a long way to go to measure up to them. This view is more prevalent among Athens residents themselves.
A crucial factor in interpreting these findings is quality of life, as mentioned above. Although few respondents associate Athens with a good quality of life, the issue nevertheless appears to weigh heavily on their overall assessment. Even a modest improvement in how people perceive quality of life could clearly shift the balance between the city’s positive and negative aspects, as experienced by residents and nonresidents alike.
However, quality of life encompasses multiple dimensions, both objective—such as housing, the cost of living, the environment and traffic—and subjective, including psychological strain. The major challenge for the future, therefore, is to determine which of these dimensions matter most and design policies that address the demands of a better quality of life in our contradictory metropolis.
Giannis Balampanidis is a political analyst and head of political and social research at Metron Analysis.