Planning industrial location in Greater Athens: The interaction between deindustrialization and anti‐industrialism during the 1980s

This article aims at examining how and why industrial location planning intentions and attempts undertaken by a Socialist government during the 1980s in a southern European capitalist metropolis, Greater Athens, were not achieved in practice. It first examines recent trends in the unequal geography of manufacturing production in Athens and identifies the major problems of the Athenian industrial space. It then examines the basic urban‐industrial planning attempts undertaken during the 1980s and the actual sociopolitical and cultural responses which drove to the abandonment of those attempts. The article argues that these responses were grounded in a widespread anti‐industrial mentality, the political speculation of the environment issue and the fictitious dilemma ‘environmental protection‐versus‐industrial development’ in Athens. It then sets forth an explanation of anti‐industrialism as the combined outcome of: (1) the general spatial‐economic problems; (2) the role of speculative land and housing interests; (3) the lack of a comprehensive and deliberate industrial strategy for the development and effective location of manufacturing; and (4) the mainstream ideological propensities developed during the 1980s. On the basis of these analyses the article finally proposes a re‐orientation of future research towards more socially and culturally informed approaches in the Greek context.