The University Asylum: Relations between University Space and Cultural Activism

The University Asylum institution was established in Greece through the anti-authoritative struggles of the 1970’s as a product of social need. Assigning a unique type of independence to university spaces, it allowed the formation of collective political consciousness. The asylum worked as a strengthening factor to the already existing dynamic potential higher education institutions share. In 2019, the University Asylum was abolished, as part of the neoliberal educational reform. Its abolition equals the beginning of a process of “upgrading” universities and urban centers, to be incorporated in the market and become more appealing to investors. In the social space the asylum generated, the students formed groups, events and discussions, merging culture and politics, building collective bonds and alternative forms of organization. Combining contextual and content analysis, I detect connections between student-organized practices and space and expand Henri Lefebvre’s representational space into holding potential of disrupting established spaces. I suggest that the relation among symbolic and physical space and the intersection of culture and radical politics form a site-specific cultural activism, which critiques and intervenes in university spaces and the political system through social imagination. I interpret the University Asylum institution as enabling the re-appropriation of university spaces, through the self-organization of political and cultural life. My research suggests that academic institutions, through their symbolic independence, have great potential in the development of alternative organizational models and futures by encouraging politicization and collectivity among students and granting them free spaces to experiment and grow as social and political beings.