This edited collection explores the ways in which the 2008/2009 social and economic crisis in Southern Europe affected the interpretation of the transitional past in Spain, Greece and Portugal. Discussing topics such as public memory, Europeanism and uses of the past by grassroots movements, the volume showcases how the crisis challenged consolidated perceptions of the transitions as 'success stories'. It revisits the dominant historical narratives around Southern European transitions to democracy more than forty years since the demise of authoritarian regimes, bringing together contributors from history, cultural studies, political science and sociology.
Maria Elena Cavallaro is Associate Professor of History of International Relations at LUISS Guido Carli University, Rome, Italy, and member of CIHDE (Centro de Investigaciones Históricas de la Democracia Española) in Madrid, Spain. She was Santander Fellow in Iberian Studies at St. Antony's College, Oxford, from 2015 to 2016. She has published extensively on the Iberian Peninsula and the European Integration process and she is now working on the role of the Jenkins and Thorn Commissions in the Mediterranean Enlargement.
Kostis Kornetis is Santander Fellow in Iberian Studies at St Antony's College, Oxford. He previously studied history in Munich, London and Florence and taught at Brown University and New York University. He was Marie Sklodowska Curie Experienced Fellow at the Universidad Carlos III of Madrid, Spain. He has published extensively on the history and memory of social movements in the European South and is currently working on a book manuscript on the generational memory of transitions to democracy in Spain, Greece and Portugal.
