Greece

Greece is a brotherly nation that has maintained its diachronic identity by cultivating network bonds on spatial, cultural, and communal dimensions. One can hardly understand Greece without referring to social relations embedded in the local, regional, or national collective self that provides the medium for concrete ties of diaspora [Page 337]Greeks with their homeland. Greeks are born as individuals in a collectivistic culture, belonging to their extended families, and are enculturated in their peer group called parea that is constructed in layers, from their personal life to their school days and professional activities. Society is organized in a set of relationships that are endemic in Greek identity: “show me your friend to tell you who you are” is a traditional respectful proverb.

Geography and history endowed Greece with the necessary preconditions for it to be a real crossroads, building bridges to the north and south, east and west. Greece is a mountainous area with more than 3,050 islands and islets organized in a polycentric fabric of 13 regions, 52 prefectures, 1,034 municipalities, and 6,000 institutions in a population of 11 million people. An overarching institution that promotes connectedness and combines secular with spiritual pairing is the orthodox religion that is based on philanthropia—that is, the loving of the other under the bond of agape (love). Unlike few urban centers like Athens and Thessaloniki, personal relationships govern substantial aspects of everyday life in insular environments where continuity resists change; strong communities supersede weak institutions; and ethos is grounded in keeping your word or honor and being accountable to that as a poetic of living.

The tradition of patriarchal authority in mainland Greece, coupled with the matriarchal regime in most islands, generate the rooting line for central people in a network, at a family and community level. Affinity and kinship are ties that facilitate formation of social networks in the form of connection in Greece, as well as their functions affecting behavior in the form of contagion. Families, friends, schoolmates, religious mates, municipal/civil servants, political elites, and professional partners govern everyday life bureaucracies and serve as coparticipants in concentric or overlapping networks. If networks are like an eye, then Greek social networks are complex lenses that provide the instrument to capture society at large.

N. A. Christakis and J. H. Fowler in their analysis argue that social networks may shape people's lives; the case of Greece shows how their surprising power is manifested in real life:

• To know who Greeks are, one has to comprehend with whom they are connected
• The world is small in Greece, and everyone seems virtually connected
• Smiles and feelings are contagious; feeling is like breathing
• A neighborhood is a concrete fabric of connected members in Greek periphery
• Pain is tolerable when it is shared; communal protection cultivates connection
• Political networking is a two-edged reciprocal connection
• Greeks are social, inevitably connected animals following Aristotle's principles

In Greece, network structures are manifested in small-scale business; are protagonists of economic activity; score well on social capital; and defend cultural principles in actions, values, policies, measures, expectations, and outcomes. Greeks prefer self-organization when they recognize common attributes forming affiliations networks. Cultural dimensions introduced by Geert Hofstede and Gert Jan Hofstede as power distance, individualism, masculinity, and uncertainty avoidance present a partial view of Greek culture that is complemented by homophily; deep knowledge of the local environment, people, and their relations; hands-on engagement with economic and social life; and referral of trust and solidarity, crucial for living in Greece.

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