Athens City Branding Project
3rd Part: Athens City: a SWOT Analysis
“Neither the houses with beautiful roofs, nor the well-built walls, nor the ditches, nor the docks make the city, but the people, who are able to take advantage of the opportunities presented to them”
(Alcaeus, 7th century BC)
Following the design thinking and the process we followed to get the appropriate insights from the official development indexes of a city to structure our own smart city business model for the city of Athens, our team had to use them properly to make the SWOT model of the metropolis.
Athens City
Athens is a city with a population of 664,046 inhabitants based on the latest demographic survey of ELSTAT for 2011, and with a Metropolitan population of 3,753,783 inhabitants. It is the 3rd most populous city in Europe after Paris and Barcelona. However, we see that there is a diversity of characteristics in terms of its strengths and weaknesses, as well as the opportunities and potential risks — threats that it may encounter.
ATHENS SWOT ANALYSIS
Strengths
Athens is a city with a huge cultural heritage that is the most basic element of the city’s identity, as it is characterized by a plethora of cultural sites since it has been defined as 1st cultural venues and facilities, 5th in cultural vibrancy in relation to its population, and 2nd among 75 European cities in relation to the distance of the majority of the inhabitants from the nearest cultural space since it does not exceed 2 km. It is also a Livable city due to its medium population and invests heavily in Human Capital and Education, as it ranks 10th in number with internationally recognized Universities such as the Athens University of Economics, 14th in creative and knowledge-based jobs and 29th in creative economy. Although the city lags behind in terms of its youthfulness in the “live” and “work” factor, it is particularly playful, as it has an intense nightlife, many cultural activities, major annual music festivals (eg Rockwave, Athens Rock, etc.) and festivals. cinema, summer cinemas, fashion shows and intense sports activities mainly by watching football & basketball games.
Weaknesses
At a time when this city is characterized by a huge cultural heritage, venues, and a high level of education, its organizational systems are far behind in terms of organization. It often faces difficulties related to the phenomenon of climate change, as it is a city with a lot of cement and few green spaces so that its resilience index is low enough to protect the city and its inhabitants. Athens holds the record for the highest temperature ever recorded in Europe by the World Meteorological Organization, 48.0 ° C in its suburbs, Eleusis and Tatoi on July 10, 1977, according to the WMO Region VI (Europe, Continent only): Highest Temperature. The city of Athens is affected by the phenomenon of urban heatwave in some areas, caused by human activity, increasing their temperatures in relation to the surrounding unstructured areas and has negative effects on energy consumption, spending on coolness and health. The city’s urban thermal island has also been found to be partly responsible for changes in the climatic temperature ranges of specific meteorological stations in Athens, due to its effect on their temperatures and trends, which are recorded by them.
Also, in a metropolis full of tourist attractions, empty or abandoned buildings increase the degree of danger due to the possibility of collapse of these buildings, which are also sources of infection, while uncontrolled Airbnb has created problems for residents and the economic prosperity of the city. It also suffers from the smart and safety index, due to the poor quality of urban means of transport, traffic congestion, and corruption in systems where modern technology systems abroad are absent from public services. It is also low in indicators related to the enabling environment (33rd), cultural participation and attractiveness (39th), intellectual property and innovation (39th) and new jobs in creative sectors (31st). It is also lagging behind in terms of accessibility to services and roads as in Greece, the number of people with disabilities is estimated at around 1 million. There is no official census, the data is based on the percentages of the World Health Organization and the official bodies of the state. The city of Athens was in many places inhospitable even to ordinary pedestrians, let alone to people with disabilities. Regarding accessibility in public places and in relation to the natural environment, the Athens basin should have total green areas exceeding 35,000 acres (NTUA, 2011). In the Municipality of Athens the urban green corresponds to 10% of the total area of the Municipality which is equivalent to four (4) sq.km. And the ratio is reduced to 2.8–3% of the total area of the Municipality if the green spaces are calculated based on the active plant mass (ie without the abandoned or degraded areas). However, today they correspond to approximately 2- 2.5 sq.m. green spaces per inhabitant, while the existing free spaces correspond to 3, 84sq.m. per inhabitant. So we see that the level of accessibility in public and natural spaces does not only concern people who have a disability but overall residents and visitors of the city.
In relation to art and especially Public Art there is a lack of presence in the urban space as an element of the social, cultural and political fabric of the city (Public Art includes sculpture, performing arts, activism, intervention in the space and one range of artistic practices that are difficult to categorize, but have in common the existence within the Public Sphere, but also the existence for it). Also, the resident of Athens does not live only to work, he needs a balance of time between his personal, family and professional life (Live & Work) and to achieve this he needs to be financially stable, so that he can give priority to the above areas of life.
Opportunities
Athens can follow the example of the municipalities of Madrid, Barcelona, Valencia, Rome and others. In particular, the Municipality of Madrid divided the historic center into three concentric rings (1, 2 and 3), with individual differences in the measures for each zone (entrances depending on the commercial use or not of the ground floor, etc.). In relation to Rome, although it is directly competitive, as they have about the same population (4.3 million inhabitants in the metropolitan population), they both carry a great cultural heritage. At the same time, Barcelona is a city that combines culture with architecture, is inspired by how it invests in the future not only in the past (as we saw at the World Mobile Conference), has high tourism and thus becomes a pre-eminent tourist city while it has direct access to public transportation with modern bicycle systems in Europe’s 2nd most densely populated city. It is a Mediterranean city with an intense nightlife, rich in local food, it is a metropolis located by the sea and access to the coastline is easy for everyone.
Time for Co-Creation
For this reason, Athens can co-create both with Rome for the reasons mentioned above, and with Barcelona as they are characterized by a common Mediterranean culture, climate, lifestyle, live character, they are already top city brands and we can be inspired by the way linking the past with the present and the future, as happened with conference tourism, Spain — Barcelona, hosts the World Mobile Conference — Athens hosts many different conferences — so we need to emphasize this, as well as effective cycling systems. Finally, the Helsinki that we dealt with in the previous lessons is a model of co-creation in dealing with climate change and its environmental action. It is a city that can be a model of encouragement for Athens for cycling, walking and ecological means of public transport. Also, Athens can join the international network Carbon Neutral Cities Alliance (CNCA), to try to significantly reduce carbon dioxide emissions, to use forest areas with beautiful parks, to be visited and famous not only by Athenian citizens but also by tourists and to emphasize the energy systems for clean water such as cooperation with companies that will ensure such a thing, in order to ensure the health of citizens.
What about Covid -19?
At the same time, the Covid-19 crisis has made the city of Athens a resilient example of dealing with the huge pandemic, as it has managed to develop Digital Services for Citizens in two months, and has accelerated technological tools that were a given for the rest of Europe. E-commerce may also be developed that could be referred to as e-ticketing services, the development of digital culture and transportation has been developed, and huge investments have been made in healthcare systems in preparation for Covid — 19. In addition we must take advantage of the fact that we are becoming an example to be imitated, and promote our positive image. It is an opportunity to become a more competitive, touristy, clean metropolis, economically viable compared to the economic downturn of other countries (since we have already gone through a crisis where we have proved more frightened and more prepared at the same time), as we have created a favorable environment for one tourism that will be particularly competitive with other metropolises (We will have a tourist recovery, unlike other metropolises).
In summary, we can say that Athens is a city that can become more sustainable, creating new jobs and taking advantage of the green connection even with university spaces, which will be accessible to residents and tourists. It can become more durable as it is more technologically advanced than two months ago and invest in the importance of the neighborhood, and a better transportation system. It can be made more communicative, as the European Capital Award and the variety of NGOs that have emerged have demonstrated its social character before Covid-19, something that needs to be done today and to invest in its tourist attraction through better promotion campaigns in Athens
Threats
The city of Athens faces greater threats, mainly in terms of security and resilience, as tackling climate change and the need for energy development are issues — opportunities of major importance if we want to have a cleaner, more accessible and environmentally friendly Athens.
At the same time, both the refugee issue and the management of vulnerable social groups, with homeless people, immigrants, and people with addictions living on the streets of Athens, need to be addressed in a way that makes the city more social and friendly to these groups and at the same time more sustainable and attractive first for the residents and then for the tourists and visitors.
Also, issues related to the safety of citizens and visitors are related to the restoration of abandoned buildings, which, as mentioned above, have a high degree of risk due to unpredictable collapse and are sources of infection.
Overall, the Greek’s psychology is in an intermediate state as the exit from a ten-year economic crisis and the arrival of an uncontrolled health crisis, shaped an environment where chronic stress, misery, and depression shaped common sense so that residents of the city not only do not take a positive view of its image, but also react to its structural systems, which are related to corruption, unemployment and a number of weaknesses mentioned above. Some more threats — risks to the strengthening of the Athens brand are constant protests and mobilizations that take place on a regular basis in the streets of the metropolis, the possibility of a second wave of Covid — 19, or a possible “thawing” of Brain Drain, where great minds are going abroad for a better future.
Athens and Future
In summary, what we need to see is what makes Athens a memorable city brand today? Is it the Acropolis and its various archeological sites? The weather, the sea and the sun? Food and nightlife? The Greeks themselves? Or is it something else?
On the other hand, is it the garbage, the cement, the images of the suffering of the homeless and immigrants? Criminality; The movements? The Greeks themselves? Or is it something else?
Athens is a Brand that is connected to all of the above, but not fixed to them. It is a metropolis with all its contradictions, it fascinates and at the same time it denies, perhaps it disappoints. It has managed a huge crisis, in a city where culture, tourism, innovation and liveliness will not cease to exist. Did the Covid — 19, who overthrow everything, favor us on the road to a better future?
The Future will show it.
Team: Zinovia Sapouna, Areti Tatsi
