The landscapes of cultural and leisure economies in Greek cities

Abstract

The paper is concerned with cultural economies in the post-industrial city and examines the phenomenon of cultural and leisure clusters in Greek cities. In the first part, the paper discusses the key-role of cultural economies in the post-industrial city and presents types of cultural clusters in inner city areas. The second part focuses on Greek cities and analyses three cultural and leisure clusters in respectively Athens, Thessaloniki and Volos. The paper documents the spontaneous formation and the "laissez-faire" development of such clusters; it records the shift of land-uses and the transformations of urban landscape while it highlights the urban policies involved. Finally, it draws conclusions on the formation and management of cultural and leisure clusters and especially, the differences among large cities in the core of Europe and Mediterranean large cities in the developing periphery of Europe.