Democratic change and alter-political cooperativism: A critical view from Thessaloniki, Greece Alexandros Kioupkiolis School of Political Sciences, Faculty of Economics and Political Sciences, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Greece Theodoros Karyotis University of Ghent, Belgium Abstract In recent years, theorists and activists championing the ‘commons’ have propounded a socio-centric idea of democratic resistance and renewal with a global address. This con- ception holds that the making of new social relations and practices here and now should be the main pillar of activity aiming at wide-ranging social reconstruction. The present paper complicates and qualifies this thesis. Socio-economic and technological break- throughs can effectively serve as a catalyst for democratic change if they are adequately politicised, that is, deliberately oriented and embedded in a broader counter-hegemonic project. As a first step, the paper reviews socio-centrism and brings out its limits. But the main part is a critical inquiry into alternative cooperative enterprises set up in recent years in the northern city of Thessaloniki, Greece: a cooperative bookstore and publish- ing house (‘Akyvernites Politeies’), a self-organised factory (‘Vio.Me’), and a consumer cooperative (‘Bios Coop’). The three ventures are construed as ‘alter-political’ eco- nomic initiatives to highlight their distinctive political self-construction. The case study corroborates the theoretical argument by indicating that socio-economic enterprises aspiring to radical democratisation are deliberately political from the outset. Second, Corresponding author: Alexandros Kioupkiolis, School of Political Sciences, Faculty of Economics and Political Sciences, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Thessaloniki 54124, Greece. Email: alkioup@polsci.auth.gr Original Research Article European Journal of Political Theory 1–24 © The Author(s) 2024 Article reuse guidelines: sagepub.com/journals-permissions DOI: 10.1177/14748851241306059 journals.sagepub.com/home/ept