University of Wisconsin Milwaukee UWM Digital Commons Theses and Dissertations 5-1-2014 The lE liniko Airport: Contested Politics and the Production of Urban Space in Athens, 1938-2014 George Papakis University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee Follow this and additional works at: https://dc.uwm.edu/etd Part of the Geography Commons, History Commons, and the Urban Studies and Planning Commons Recommended Citation Papakis, George, "The Elliniko Airport: Contested Politics and the Production of Urban Space in Athens, 1938-2014" (2014). Theses and Dissertations. 478. https://dc.uwm.edu/etd/478 This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by UWM Digital Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in Theses and Dissertations by an authorized administrator of UWM Digital Commons. For more information, please contact
[email protected]. THE ELLINIKO AIRPORT: CONTESTED POLITICS AND THE PRODUCTION OF URBAN SPACE IN ATHENS, 1938-2014 by George Papakis A Dissertation Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Urban Studies at The University of Wisconsin- Milwaukee May 2014 ABSTRACT THE ELLINIKO AIRPORT: CONTESTED POLITICS AND THE PRODUCTION OF URBAN SPACE IN ATHENS, 1938-2014 by George Papakis The University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, 2014 Under the Supervision of Professor Joseph A. Rodriguez This study traces the historical forces that conditioned the dearth of public spaces in Athens, Greece, and through the case study of the city’s first civil airport, examines the current redevelopment plans of Athens’ largest remaining open space as part of a wider process of urban transformation. After serving the city for sixty years, the airport closed its doors in 2001, and since then the site has remained vacant.