Solidarity: the egalitarian tensions of a bridge-concept In looking at the other side of the crisis regarding solidarity networks in Greece, this piece provides an introductory overview for a special section of SA/AS that deals with topical issues such as the effects of austerity measures. Key words solidarity, egalitarianism, crisis, austerity, Greece In this themed section, we aim to un-wrap the bundle of ‘solidarity’, a term ascribed to a variety of practices and actions borne out of current moments of ‘crisis’ associ- ated with the disastrous politics of austerity. For a concept so resonant in current events, and with conceptual cognates with a long history in anthropology (such as reciprocity), solidarity has not received the attention it deserves from ethnographers (see Gill and Kasmir 2008). The ethnographic site of our urgent, yet long-engaged, attention is Greece. The section establishes solidarity as a concept that bridges – that is, captures loosely and yet in tension – diverse modes of practice, forms of sociality and mecha- nisms of envisioning future prospects for people’s lives. It links diverse networks of people and sometimes contradictory meanings in the context of anti-austerity mobilisation. The idea of solidarity as a conceptual bridge in people’s actions and un- derstandings of selfhood in crisis links our common inquiry and lodges it within broader discussions of crisis. The three essays present ethnographic insights into how people respond to crisis and austerity, focusing on research interlocutors’ engagement in ‘solidarity net- works’, or ‘solidarity economies’, to use the native term. The section does not claim to provide definitive final words on solidarity, in a rapidly changing reality. It is in- stead an opening gesture, indicating possible future research routes, but also examin- ing practices of sharing that involve aid to the other and social connectedness in their making. Solidarity histories Solidarity is not an exogenous analytical concept but an idea inspiring people in con- texts of everyday life in crisis. In an array of activities that include social clinics, social pharmacies, anti-middleman food markets and soup kitchens, the grassroots solidarity economy of a country threatened by rapid pauperisation has borne a vivid reality that emerged during (and perhaps partly because of) the ‘crisis’. These voluntary 142 Social Anthropology (2016) 24, 2 142–151. © 2016 European Association of Social Anthropologists. doi:10.1111/1469-8676.12298 The other side of the crisis: solidarity networks in Greece THEODOROS RAKOPOULOS