Dimitris Plantzos
Athens Demapped: Archaeology, Heritage, and Urban Transformation
explores the entangled relationships between classical heritage,
memory, and modernity in the evolving city of Athens. Dimitris Plantzos
interrogates how archaeology, tourism, and urban planning have shaped
the city’s identity, revealing Athens not as a timeless monument to
antiquity but as a contested landscape where past and present collide.
Rather
than a neutral cultural asset, Athens’ classical legacy has been
mapped, commodified, and weaponised – used both to forge collective
memory and to marginalise dissenting voices. Plantzos critically engages
with nostalgia, gentrification, and the politics of heritage, exposing
how the myth of Athens as the “cradle of Western civilisation” continues
to serve shifting ideological and economic agendas.
At the heart of
the book is the concept of “demapping”: the erasure or overwriting of
certain spaces, histories, and communities to reinforce dominant
narratives and commercial interests. Drawing on archaeological insight,
urban theory, and cultural critique, Athens Demapped reimagines the city as a site of overlapping histories and contested futures.
At
a moment of rapid urban transformation, this book offers a vital
perspective on the uses of the past and the right to the city. Essential
reading for scholars of heritage, politics, and space.
Published
October 6, 2025
Copyright (c) 2025 Coimbra University Press
Details about the available publication format: PDF
ISBN-13 (15)
978-989-26-2771-7
doi
10.14195/978-989-26-2771-7
