Department Member, Department of Government, Political Theory and Ideology Group
Athens University of Economics and Business, Department of Management Science and Technology
London School of Economics, European Institute
Senior Research Officer
About
Elpida holds a PhD in Public Policy and Management from the Department of Management Science and Technology of the Athens University of Economics & Business (2009), a MBA jointly awarded by the National Technical University of Athens and Athens University of Economics and Business (2001) and a BSc (Hons) in Public Administration from the Panteion University of Political and Social Sciences (1999).
Elpida's research focuses on Greek party politics and their role in state modernization. In her doctoral thesis, she studied the way Greek political parties framed ICT innovation in their political debates over the implementation of the taxation information system (TAXIS). Her study revealed how specific discursive choices and parliamentary practices allowed political parties to introduce ICT innovation in Greek central government (i.e. Ministry of Finance) in ways that did not touch upon corruption and tax evasion. In her post-doctoral fellowship, she moved on to study how specific properties of the Greek political system such as legalism, clientelism and an authoritarian notion of accountability coupled with an anaemic civil society influence the deployment of information and communication technologies in the public sector and block attempts towards the establishment of professionalism in Greek state bureaucracy.
Elpida's findings contribute to the study of Greek politics and public administration in two substantial ways. First, they reveal the influence of political discourse and hegemonic framings over modernization projects in highly politicised public bureaucracies as in the case of Greece. Then, they fill a lacuna in existing literature by showing how the practices and operations of Greek public administration condition ICT implementations in ways that are not conducive to innovation and actual reform. Thus, research in Greek public administration moves from traditional issues of clientelism and corruption to examine the underlying paradigm of action, the rejection of expertise and the repercussions of the absence of a solid techno-scientific vision for its operations.
Currently, Elpida has embarked on the study of the Greek sovereign debt crisis as a unique occasion in the delineation of the politics/economy nexus. Focus is placed on the iterative constitution of political responses to the crisis and the reactions of financial markets. To this end, the project analyses the efforts of the Greek government (i.e. political narratives and government actions) to formulate effective policies that will reinstate the country’s credibility to financial markets. These efforts are juxtaposed to the reaction of credit rating agencies and the way risk valuation techniques translate political rhetoric and action into judgements on a country’s credit risk and forecasts on the future. This iterative process is examined through the lens of performativity which sensitizes research to the interplay of discourses, such as political rhetoric, government actions and economic theories, with materiality manifested in objects such as market devices and calculation techniques. Research aims at overcoming existing political analyses of financial markets as autonomous entities. It shifts focus to the interaction among political discourses and actions with the agencies of non-human actors populating financial markets. Moreover, it interprets the Greek sovereign debt crisis in light of broader changes in the global financial system.
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