Creativity and Cultural Capital in the Periphery Evidence from Two Greek Cities

Introduction

The term “creative” has permeated most facets of contemporary life, and creativity has been indicated as a panacea for most problems. Indeed, since creativity is a ubiquitous issue and creative interventions may be applied in manifold ways in economy and society, then the adjective “creative” ought not to be confined within the domain of a specific industry. Rather, it indicates an approach applicable to any sector of the economy. In the recent years, adjustment of “creative” to issues such as city, culture, art etc reflects the need for novel approaches to work and life.

Aim of this study is to examine to what extent Florida’s creative theories, emanating from totally different cultural and economic contexts, are of relevance to Greek peripheral cities. In this respect, competitive assets of the municipalities of Chania and Kalamata (economic infrastructure, cultural capital, communications, education & research) have been examined. Along with other welfare activities in Greece (education, healthcare, NGO projects), cultural events also have often been conducted uncritically, without scrutinizing particularly costs or revenues. If crises can be also viewed as opportunities, then the ongoing economic crisis dictated rationalization, by introducing evaluation of cultural activities not only according to their effect, but also according to their gate-money capacity. Aim of this research is also to tackle the question of viability and to investigate the impact of economic crisis on cultural policies of municipalities.

Both cities of our research are located by Southwestern Greece and the distance separating the two prefectures is rather small, approximately 116 miles (see Figure 1). Prefectures are connected by ship, but communication is infrequent and mostly commercial, except in the summer months. The decisive criterion regarding selection of these two particular cities was that despite their geographic proximity, their cultural backgrounds, as well as mentality of people, were found to differ significantly. For example, Chania has substantially greater cultural relevance with Siteia, a town located at the eastern part of Crete, about 290km apart, than with Kalamata. Tortuous Mediterranean shores may sustain a gloss of cultural affinity, yet influences from the interior seem to play a more important role – although this was not always the rule in the history of the area.

Figure 1.

Distance between Kalamata and Chania