The advent of the economic crisis transformed the social movement community in Greece, as attention shifted from claim-based protest repertoires towards service-oriented forms of action. Chapters 3, 4, and 5 provide primary empirical insight to the repertoires developed in the food, health, and labour social movement scenes; the contentious politics framework claims that similar sets of mechanisms are identified in different contexts, while different sets of mechanisms lead to similar processes. This inquiry conceives the change in repertoires as a reflection of a boundary enlargement process, where previously defined boundaries of collective action are extended both practically and conceptually. In order to understand the different paths leading to the development of the boundary enlargement process, this chapter, first, marks some important similarities and differences among the social movement scenes of food, health, and labour; and second, compares the distinct development of the three scenes by focusing on the trajectories’ evolution in terms of organizational structure, resources, and identity.

Comparing the Scenes

Austerity measures have severely affected the sectors of food, health, and labour. Perceived as social movement scenes, the social movement community presents increased activity with the provision of bottom-up services. Our aim is to demonstrate the way in which social movement initiatives become unofficial welfare providers in covering basic needs. The three aforementioned scenes are closely related; some organizations are involved in multiple scenes, while those operating in one scene exclusively, tend to have links with organizations from other scenes as well.