Over the past 30 years, Athens has transitioned from a relatively inclusive city into a financialised metropolis, moving from conservative protectionism and clientelism to liberalised and globalised socioeconomic conditions. The sovereign debt crisis severely impacted the city’s economy and the living conditions of most of its residents. Furthermore, in the aftermath of the crisis, touristification made the real estate market increasingly attractive to foreign investors and, at the same time, housing much less affordable for local low-income households. This article explores segregation trends in Athens associated with the processes, places and agents involved between 1991 and 2021. The investigation is based on detailed social data from small spatial units, allowing the analysis of segregation trends at the neighbourhood level. By exploring the segregation trends over 30 years in different parts of the city, this article highlights the potential differences in the temporality and spatiality of residential processes in Athens, using investigative methods beyond those usually employed in comparative segregation studies. This approach also reveals the differences between permanence and change in the evolution of these trends and their social outcomes.
AlexandriG (2018) Planning gentrification and the ‘absent’ state in Athens. International Journal of Urban and Regional Research42(1): 36–50.
2.
ArapoglouVPSpyrellisSN (2024) Arrival infrastructures: segregation of displaced migrants and processes of urban change in Athens. Geographies4(1): 182–202.
3.
ArbaciS (2019) Paradoxes of Segregation. Hoboken, NJ: Wiley.
4.
BalampanidisDMaloutasTPapatzaniE (2019) Informal urban regeneration as a way out of the crisis? Airbnb in Athens and its effects on space and society. Urban Research & Practice14(3): 223–242.
DeurlooRMusterdSSleutjesBSlotJ (2022) Co-location of different population categories. Micro-level segregation dynamics: the case of Amsterdam. In: MaloutasTKaradimitriouN (eds) Vertical Cities: Micro-segregation, Social Mix and Urban Housing Markets. Cheltenham: Edward Elgar, pp. 99–115.
9.
EKKE–ELSTAT (2015) Panorama of Greek census data 1991–2011. Internet application to access and map census data. Available at: https://panorama.statistics.gr/en/ (accessed 19 August 2024).
ELSTAT (2025) Selected detailed data from the 2021 census provided to the authors following a special request, within the framework of the research project Segregation Patterns and Deprivation Areas (SeDe). Available at: https://www.statistics.gr/en/statistical-data-request
12.
FainsteinSSGordonIHarloeM (1992) Divided Cities: New York & London in the Contemporary World. Oxford: Blackwell.
13.
FugitaKMaloutasT (2012) Residential Segregation in Comparative Perspective Making Sense of Contextual Diversity. London: Routledge.
14.
HamnettC (1994) Social polarisation in global cities: theory and evidence. Urban Studies31(3): 401–424.
15.
HamnettC (1996) Social polarisation, economic restructuring and welfare state regimes. Urban Studies33(8): 1407–1430.
16.
HartingPRadiD (2020) Residential segregation: the role of inequality and housing subsidies. Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization178(C): 801–819.
KalfaK (2019) Self-sheltering Now! The Invisible Side of American Aid to Greece. Athens: Futura. (In Greek)
19.
KandylisGMaloutasTSayasJ (2012) Immigration, inequality and diversity: socio-ethnic hierarchy and spatial organization in Athens, Greece. European Urban and Regional Studies19(3): 267–286.
20.
KandylisGPapatzaniEPolyzouI (2024) Between coexistence and marginality: migrants and socio-spatial change in Athens. In: MaloutasT (ed.) Athens: A Rapidly Changing South European Metropolis. Abingdon: Routledge, pp. 63–78.
21.
KaradimitriouNMaloutasTArapoglouVP (2021) Multiple deprivation and urban development in athens, greece: Spatial trends and the role of access to housing. Land10(3): 290.
22.
KritikosCG (2025) Urban heritage for the few: from Plaka neighbourhood to an unsustainable historic urban preservation model. In: MaloutasT (ed.) Athens: A Rapidly Changing Metropolis in the European South. Oxon: Routledge, pp. 107–120.
LeriouAMourouglouA (2003) Κallithea, Aspects of the History of the Municipality and the City. Athens: Alexandros Publications.
25.
LiliusJBalampanidisD (2020) ‘Live like a lifelong tourist’? the contradicting realities of Finnish offshore service workers in Athens. Urban Planning5(3): 177–188.
26.
LoganJRBellmanB (2016) The Philadelphia Negro: residential segregation in a nineteenth-century northern city. Social Science History40: 683706.
27.
LoganJRMartinezMJ (2018) The spatial scale and spatial configuration of residential settlement: measuring segregation in the Postbellum South. American Journal of Sociology123(4): 1161–1203.
28.
MaloutasT (2004) Segregation and residential mobility: spatially entrapped social mobility and its impact on segregation in Athens. European Urban and Regional Studies11(3): 195–211.
29.
MaloutasT (2007) Segregation, social polarization and immigration in Athens during the 1990s: theoretical expectations and contextual difference. International Journal of Urban and Regional Research31(4): 733–758.
30.
MaloutasT (2014) The archaeology of the decline of the city center: residential location choices of affluent groups. In: TsilimpounidiMWalshA (eds) Remapping ‘Crisis’. A Guide to Athens. Winchester; Washington, DC: Zero Books, p. 348.
31.
MaloutasT (2025) Athens: A Rapidly Changing Metropolis in the European South (ed. MaloutasT). London: Routledge.
32.
MaloutasTBottonH (2021) Trends of social polarisation and segregation in Athens (1991–2011). Social Inclusion9(2): 117–128.
33.
MaloutasTKaradimitriouN (eds) (2022) Vertical Cities, Micro-segregation, Social Mix and Urban Housing Markets. London: Edward Elgar.
34.
MaloutasTSouliotisN (2025) The social profile and spatial imprint of elite groups among higher occupational categories in Athens. In: 5th ISA forum of sociology, 6–11 July, Rabat, Morocco.
35.
MaloutasTSpyrellisSN (2016) Vertical segregation: mapping the vertical social stratification of residents in Athenian apartment buildings. Méditerranée (127): 27–36.
36.
MaloutasTSpyrellisSN (2019a) Inequality and segregation in Athens: maps and data. In: MaloutasTSpyrellisSN (eds) Athens Social Atlas. Digital Compendium of Texts and Visual Material. Athens: Athens Social Atlas. Available at: https://www.athenssocialatlas.gr/en/article/inequality-and-segregation-in-athens/ (accessed 1 June 2025).
37.
MaloutasTSpyrellisSN (2019b) Segregation trends in Athens: the changing residential distribution of occupational categories during the 2000s. Regional Studies54(4): 462–471.
38.
MaloutasTSpyrellisSNVatavaliF (2025) Unregulated urban regeneration in Athens: greening and taxation of the built environment as impending levers of increasing inequalities. Land14(4): 777.
39.
MarcusePvan KempenR (eds) (2002) Of States and Cities: The Partitioning of Urban Space. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
40.
MasseyDSDentonNA (1988) The dimensions of residential segregation. Social Forces67(2): 281–315.
41.
MusterdS (2020) Handbook of Urban Segregation. Cheltenham: Edward Elgar.
42.
MusterdSOstendorfW (eds) (1998) Urban Segregation and the Welfare State. Abingdon: Routledge.
43.
MyofaN (2023) Kallithea: the development of an exceptional settlement close to Athens. In: MaloutasTSpyrellisSN (eds) Athens Social Atlas. Digital Compendium of Texts and Visual Material. Athens: Athens Social Atlas. Available at: https://www.athenssocialatlas.gr/en/article/kallithea/ (accessed 1 March 2025).
44.
ParkRE (1916) The city: suggestions for the investigation of human behaviour in the urban environment. The American Journal of Sociology20(5): 577–612.
45.
PettasDAvdikosVIliopoulouE (2022) ‘Insurrection is not a spectacle’: experiencing and contesting touristification in Exarcheia, Athens. Urban Geography43(7): 984–1006.
46.
PikettyT (2014) Capital in the Twenty-first Century. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
47.
PolyzouISpyrellisSN (2024) Housing practices of Albanian immigrants in Athens: an ‘in-between’ socio-spatial condition. Land13(7): 964.
48.
PreteceilleE (1995) Division sociale de l’espace et globalisation. Le cas de la métropole parisienne. Sociétés Contemporaines22(1): 33–67.
49.
SassenS (1991) The Global City. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
50.
SeDe (2024) Segregation patterns and deprivation areas research project. Available at: https://www.sedeproject.eu (accessed 2 July 2025).
51.
SiatitsaD (2022) Re-inhabiting central Athens: urban planning, housing and the claim for socio-spatial justice. Bulletin de Correspondance Hellénique Moderne et Contemporain (7): 7–29.
52.
SiatitsaDTulumelloSColiniL (2025) Private Profit vs Social Value. Housing as an Investment in Greece and Southern Europe. Athens: FEPS/ETERON.
53.
TammaruTMarcińczakSvan HamM (2016) Socio-economic Segregation in European Capital Cities East Meets West (eds TammaruTMarcińczakSvan HamMMusterdS). London: Routledge.
54.
VaiouD (2021) The Invisible Work of Women in Building the City. Alexandria, Egypt: Alexandria. (In Greek)
