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

A comparative study of two Greek cities, Chania and Kalamata, has been conducted regarding their creative potential. The cities are similar in many ways, i.e. regarding climate, goods produced, dependence on tourism etc, yet their cultural capital has been created through different patterns, and also identity formation of local societies has been built on different foundations. Cultural policies of the municipalities have also been oriented to different goals. Municipality of Kalamata has launched an all-encompassing cultural campaign, having dance as its spearhead. On the other hand, municipality of Chania, while offering an integrated cultural program in summer, it focuses more on letters and local history. Since promotion of arts has been hindered due to austerity measures, municipalities had to re-orient their strategy according to the new unfavorable developments. Despite their rich cultural capital, it is questionable whether these cities could be designated as “creative” according to Florida’s criteria, mainly because of the tight bonding ties of local societies.