Introduction

Globalisation and the transnational flows of people and ideas have turned place into a site of negotiation, with mainstream notions of place and space to be contested (Amin, 2004). Established concepts of borders are challenged and replaced by flows and networks, in which spaces are multiple, de-territorialised and non-fixed (Sassatelli, 2010). In an era of transnational mobility, cities and regions are still viewed as territorial entities; the local is associated with the near and familiar, as opposed to the global which is linked with the abstract, the afar and the hegemonic (Amin, 2004). Travel and mobility reinforce association with place, and place identity contributes to a rediscovery of place rather than a distance from it (Lewicka, 2005). Despite globalisation, mobility and the socio-political changes of the past 40 years, place is still an object of attachments and people still show strong sentiments for and attachment to the local (Lewicka, 2011).

This chapter is focused on the local and rural level; it discusses how local cultural initiatives in rural areas can serve as instruments to reclaim place, contribute to the development of the local area and function as enablers of repopulation. It explores the case study of Giortes Rokkas (Giortes Rokkas, 2022), translated as Rokkas Festivities, an initiative developed in the inland of the western part of the island of Crete in Greece, aimed at encouraging citizen involvement and repopulation. This initiative showcases a model of grassroots rural cultural policy where culture and creativity can thrive despite a lack of systematic state cultural policy support.

The chapter expands the remit of cultural policy discourse with evidence that contributes to our understanding of the role of culture as a means of supporting the repopulation of rural areas. It stresses a de-commodified use of culture in cultural policy that is aimed at creating social connections and social fabric rather than at financial profit. It demonstrates that cultural policy can flourish also in areas that are under-served from cultural policy, showing how the local community can simultaneously take the role of policy-maker, producer and audience and that cultural policy can also emerge by non-experts. The chapter also contributes to the scholarship on Greek cultural policy, a largely neglected and under-researched area in the wider context of cultural policy research.

The empirical data is based on research conducted in late 2018 and early 2019. In-depth, semi structured interviews were conducted with members of the Rokka team, as well as informal interviews with members of the audience that helped to “set the scene” and provided preliminary material that was explored further through the in-depth interviews with members of Giortes Rokkas. Additional hard copy material was also analysed including programmes, audience numbers and regional policy documents.

Place in Cultural Policy and the Move Beyond the City Agenda

Place as physical space has not lost its significance. According to Derrett (2003), the sense of place can be different for different people in different times, as well as for inhabitants and visitors. For a place to be distinct and visited, it has to be created; this is why event organisers put so much emphasis on the venues selected and the experiences offered in an attempt to connect people to places (Derrett, 2003). However, as a result of the neo-liberal entrepreneurial discourse that became increasingly dominant from the 1980s onwards, the attention of cultural policy makers increasingly turned to economic priorities, overlooking the social value of arts and culture (Belfiore, 2002; García, 2004a; Sachs Olsen, 2013; Smidt-Jensen, 2007). This shift resulted in a number of flagship cultural policies across many countries that concentrated on bolstering the positive images of cities combined with a strong focus on urban regeneration, using culture as a tool (Andres & Grésillon, 2013; Belfiore, 2002; Northall, 2008; Smidt-Jensen, 2007). This, in turn, led to a focus on large-scale initiatives such as the European Cities of Culture, international festivals and mega events, all of which were argued to have measurable impacts that supported the instrumentalised use of cultural policy for regeneration (Amin, 2004; Sachs Olsen, 2013).

As a result of the focus on cities as centres of activity, a lot of scholarship on creativity and culture concentrates on urban centres (Bianchini & Parkinson, 1993; Borén & Young, 2013; García, 2004b; Vickery, 2007) but this does not mean that peripheral and rural areas do not have cultural assets of their own or are culturally stagnant. As cultural policies have gradually shifted beyond providing tools for heritage, preservation and creating a sense of identity to become parts of strategies to achieve spatial, economic and social development and enhance the profile of certain areas (Pierantoni, 2015), the periphery and rural areas started getting more attention.

Both villages of the case study that is the focus of this chapter are situated in the periphery, in rural Crete. Periphery as they are away from both the capital of the country and the city of Chania, which is the metropolitan centre of the geographical region; and rural as they are outside cities, in the countryside, and have a very small population. Peripheral, remote, rural areas, such as the one discussed here, can be characterised by accessibility problems, low populations or depopulation and a weak influence in governance (Petridou & Ioannides, 2012). Local rural development became an important policy in the EU with the reform of the Structural Funds in 1988 to target particularly disadvantaged areas and the introduction of socio-economic development programmes (Ray, 1997, 2000). Local rural development is characterised by a bottom-up, participatory approach with three main elements, namely a territorial rather than a sectorial orientation, emphasis on a smaller than country scale, and a focus on local resources that are used to maximise benefits within the territory (Ray, 1997). It is also based on the needs and perspectives of local people using local participation processes that have a community, cultural or environmental character (ibid.).

Although firmly rooted at the local level, this case study places emphasis on the extralocal whose mobilisation is paramount to achieve a dynamic dialectic between internal and external actors, and as such is an example of neo-endogenous development. In order to understand neo-endogenous development, however, it is important to refer to endogenous development first; the LEADER programme is a European Union funded example of a local rural development strategy sharing some common characteristics with the case study. LEADER was introduced to promote rural development in areas with a population of less than 100,000, mainly through small-scale actions, and is an example of endogenous socio-economic development as proposed actions were bottom-up, based on local resources, and involved the participation of the local community, the business and the voluntary sectors (Ray, 2000). LEADER assumes that local areas have more control of the development process as they are mobilising their own local resources and set up mechanisms to sustain local development, but also sees endogenous development as a mechanism of effective intervention that involves extralocal actors (Ray, 2000). The dialectic of local development is manifested through the local engaging the extralocal, whether it is individuals or organisations; territorial identity is shaped using characteristics of the population, but also of the “other”—external or extralocal agents that are used to mobilise the local identity (Ray, 1997).

Stemming from endogenous development, the term neo-endogenous development was introduced to describe “endogenous-based development in which extra-local factors are recognised and regarded as essential but which retains a belief in the potential of local areas to shape their future” (Ray, 2001, p. 4). The development of local areas in neo-endogenous development theory is animated from a combination of actors a. from within the area, b. from above, such as national governments, and c. from an intermediary level such as non-governmental associations, and neo-endogenous development theory can serve as a strategy to raise awareness of local resources for territorial purposes (Ray, 2001). Although locally rooted, this approach is marked by the interactions between local environments and outside factors (Gkartzios & Lowe, 2019). For Ray, “local collectivity/solidarity is a necessary basis for neo-endogenous development to succeed within the wider context of globalisation” (Ray, 2001, p. 24). Networking between rural regions also plays a paramount role in neo-endogenous development as a means to access non-locally available resources and infrastructure (Chatzichristos et al., 2021).

Rural Communities and the Importance of Festivals

In rural communities, the arts can impact economic and social sustainability in a range of ways (Mahon & Hyyryläinen, 2019), offering a sense of belonging and connection to local population, enhancing opportunities to both connect and socialise and to construct and share individual and collective identities (Anwar-McHenry et al., 2018; Derrett, 2003). It is important for local communities to have their own platforms, rather than using top-down policies, as means to reinforce the sense of local as both space and identity (García, 2004b). The arts can provide such a platform, as they can contribute to strengthening people’s sense of place and community, enhance civic participation and provide opportunities for interaction and engagement with local activities in local communities and rural areas, as well as encourage understanding between different groups of people (Anwar-McHenry, 2011; Mahon & Hyyryläinen, 2019). Culture brings added value to a territory and provides a platform for the generation of social and economic value that contributes to new forms of active citizenship, new definitions of well-being and soft innovation processes (Sacco et al., 2014, p. 2816).

Petridou and Ioannides (2012) examine how small-scale creative industries contribute to inclusivity, sustainability and quality of life in peripheral areas, highlighting the contribution of grassroots initiatives to territorial cohesion in the periphery. Crawshaw and Gkartzios (2016) research the role of artistic practice in rural community development with reference to its non-economic effects, focusing on the effects of art experience in community relationships, and argue it plays a paramount role in participatory rural development as a central factor to understand community relationships and their micro-dynamics.

Public celebrations and festivals are particularly important for rural communities as they enhance a collective sense of identity and place and contribute to empowerment, sustainability and revitalisation (Anwar-McHenry, 2011). They have become instruments of regional and local revitalisation with plenty of benefits for rural communities such as enhancing social cohesion, encouraging short-term employment and helping residents to develop skills that will support them finding work in the future. In addition, they also act as mechanisms to reinvent places and their images and “can place or keep towns on the map” (Brennan-Horley, Connell, & Gibson, 2007, p. 72).

Festivals as sites of belonging, participation, connections, information and energy exchange have the ability to offer complex relationships and a sense of community, with communities establishing festivals to highlight feelings of ownership and belonging for resident participants (Derrett, 2003). Mahon and Hyyryläinen (2019) writing about the contribution of festivals to rural change and development, discuss how the arts impact on local development processes, activities and agendas and showcase the level of resilience of the local population in using culture as a means of adapting to change.

Forms of culture not normally associated with rural areas can also contribute to regional transformation and the accumulation of cultural capital; they can trigger inter-regional linkages and transitions in a rural setting, as well as contributing to shifting and reshaping regional identities from ones associated with traditional activities such as fishing and harvesting to more alternative ones connected with gourmet agriculture, retailing, tourism, and entertainment (Gibson, 2002). They can contribute to the economy and the profile of an area, enriching it through creating identities and constructed, rather than only inherent, tradition (Brennan-Horley et al., 2007).

The Case Study Context: Some Notes on Greek Cultural Policy

National Greek cultural policy has had a longstanding orientation towards a treatment of culture that is focused largely on three categories: cultural heritage and international audiences, the return of the Parthenon marbles and synergies between culture and tourism (Kouri, 2012). These categories do not appear to have changed through time. As Kouri (2012) argues, the policy trajectory does not seem to move towards the association of culture with access, diversity, participation or the intrinsic benefits of culture, but rather remains focused on the instrumental, and primarily economic impacts of culture. Moreover, Greek cultural policy seems disconnected from the periphery and from regional/local development policy, since it places emphasis on the metropolitan centres, and does not promote, through policy and relevant actions, interconnections of culture with rural development or regeneration.

Cultural policy has become gradually more decentralised since the 1980s when there was a transfer of administration and funding responsibilities to the municipalities, and it is since then that local authorities have become more active in the cultural life of their areas creating cultural infrastructure, institutions and events, supported financially by the state (Konsola & Karachalis, 2010). However, the two metropoles, Athens and Thessaloniki, still dominate the cultural life of the country through the concentration of infrastructure, cultural institutions, creative industries and major events (Konsola & Karachalis, 2010). In contrast to the national level, cultural strategies of medium and small cities tend to focus on social objectives and are mostly aiming at their local community rather than international visitors, but do offer some possibilities for creativity and the promotion of the image of their areas (Konsola & Karachalis, 2010).

The flourishing of festivals and grassroots cultural activity in regional and rural Greece observed in the past few years is a result of the financial crisis and has taken place for mainly two reasons: one is the traditional relation of culture with tourism and to that extent local festivals have been seen as instruments to attract visitors and boost local income; the second one is the need of the population to find spaces of cultural expression, means of participation in the social life of the community and common points of reference in times of uncertainty. Volunteers play a major role in these festivals, underlining the relationship with and the embeddedness of these events in the local communities (Levidou, 2017).

Giortes Rokkas: The Case Study and Findings

The neighbouring villages of Rokka and Kera, with approximately 60 inhabitants in total (Seventh Health Region of Crete, 2015), are situated in a hill area in the inland of the Municipality of Kissamos, on the north-west end of Crete. Kissamos is one of the least touristically developed areas of the wider region and has a low GDP in comparison to other municipalities (Vrentzou-Skordalaki, 2011). Although its range of natural landscapes such as beaches, gorges, olive tree groves and NATURA 2000 areas1 make it attractive to tourists, the tourism sector is not as developed as in other parts of the region of Chania, resulting in lower numbers of visitors.

Both villages are typical of Cretan hill/semi-mountainous villages: they have few inhabitants2 who work in agriculture and livestock, and are in danger of complete depopulation as the young generation leaves for academic studies and never returns. Agriculture and livestock are extremely arduous and in the minds of the people they are associated with lack of education, as in the past they were exercised by those unable to finish school or those who did not have the opportunity to study at university. It has therefore been a firm belief and goal of most Cretan families in villages and rural areas that the young generation should leave, that young people should seek a better future in urban centres, where there are more opportunities for jobs that are not as hard.

Giortes Rokkas started as a thought of the Chairman of the Organising Committee who grew up in the village of Rokka. As the area has been declared an archaeological site by the Ministry of Culture in 2011,3 the Chairman took advantage of the Ministry of Culture programme of the August full moon, aiming to make the site accessible to the wider public and bring life to a semi-abandoned area. The August full moon initiative of the Greek Ministry of Culture links cultural heritage with tourism through allowing the organisation of cultural events the evening of the August full moon date every year in hundreds of archaeological sites, museums and monuments across Greece. These become freely accessible to the public on that day and some open particularly for that purpose.

It took time to convince the Division of Archaeology of the Ministry but eventually the site at Rokka was included in the list for the August Full Moon events in 2013. It took an equally long time to convince the inhabitants of the potential of such an event and longer to clear the area, which was a pasture until then, to make it suitable for the public to visit. From the first event in 2013 until 2016 inclusive, Giortes Rokkas was a single event on the day of the August full moon. In 2017, the neighbouring (within walking distance) village of Kera, whose inhabitants also wanted to participate in this initiative, joined Giortes Rokkas which expanded, both geographically and in duration, to two weeks. The organising committee also grew from 7 all male members at the beginning to 15 female, male and young people from both villages.

Although it is actually a festival, Giortes Rokkas is consciously not described as such. This was an attempt to distance it from the label of “festival” that seemed intimidating for the inhabitants. As the artistic content of the initiative, and particularly the strong focus on classical music, was not familiar to them, it was important to create a proximity and close relation with the new initiative, connecting it with their everyday lives. Giortes (Festivities) was introduced when one of the inhabitants mentioned that the event felt like a feast they would have in their homes, describing Giortes Rokkas very accurately given that all events and activities, except the main event, take place in the gardens, yards and fields of the inhabitants.

Since its inception Giortes Rokkas has set very high standards for their main event, which takes place on the day of the August full moon, hosting orchestras that have not performed in Chania and the wider area either at all or in their full composition. In this sense there is nothing comparable in the area. Both villages are not easily accessible, so the aim of the Chairman and the artistic co-ordinator was to bring in events for the programme that would not be easy to find elsewhere in the region, hence the choice of classical music as the genre for the main event in all the subsequent programmes after its inception in 2013.

Giortes Rokkas comprises of an artistic team responsible for proposing the artistic and cultural programme, which consists of people who do not necessarily live in the villages, and an organising/production team which consists of all the inhabitants of both villages. The artistic programming is based on a participatory process and a dialogue-based relationship between the organising committee and the 60 inhabitants of the two villages. All issues and programming proposals are discussed in common meetings and no decision is made without hearing the opinion of everyone. The approval of the final programme is done by all inhabitants and there are plenty of meetings taking place before the programme for every season is agreed and announced. This process creates a dynamic of dialogue and exchange between the inhabitants and non-inhabitants involved in the organisation of Giortes Rokkas.

All inhabitants of both villages act as cultural managers and producers without any such prior knowledge or expertise. They actively participate in all tasks, whether it is crowdfunding, cleaning and preparing the spaces, stage managing, ushering, looking after the parking facilities, catering, crowd management, hosting of artists, or helping to carry instruments such as grand pianos, harps, timpani or a double bass up the mountain since the stage is only accessible on foot. The relationship between the artistic team and the organising committee is, according to the artistic co-ordinator, an interesting element of the administrational and organisational structure of Giortes Rokkas because of the difference in experience and understanding between the two teams; the artistic team had to build bridges between them and the inhabitants to create a shared understanding that ensured a balance of the artistic with the administrative part of Giortes Rokkas.

The Region of Crete, the sub-Region of Chania, the neighbouring Municipalities of Kissamos, Chania and Platanias, the Ephorate of Antiquities of Chania as well as the cultural associations of Rokka and Kera and, for the 2018 season, Google Tourism Online, act as Giortes Rokkas’ supporters. Giortes Rokkas’ funding comes from three main sources: from public authorities—the Region, Municipality and more recently the Ministry; from financial or in kind contributions from local institutions, organisations and businesses; and from a unique version of crowdfunding from all those with a direct or indirect relation to the initiative. Giortes Rokkas is also supported financially by local, small-scale businesses who pay for stands to promote their products during Giortes Rokkas season. The rationale for choosing the sponsors of Giortes Rokkas is that local businesses are a priority—if there is competition, it is always the local company that is preferred in an attempt to assist and strengthen the local economy. Additional income comes from programme sales, and from ticket sales for the theatre performances. All local and regional media in the area offer media support.

Crowdfunding is a means to raise funding for the initiative but here it has a unique dimension. A few months before the start of Giortes Rokkas, a team literally walks around both villages and the neighbouring areas with the programme of that year’s events and asks people on the spot for support. This money is used to cover direct expenses, as funding from organisations and institutions takes more time to process because of the bureaucracy involved. This version of crowdfunding is particularly popular among the elderly inhabitants, who are unable to offer manual assistance in the productions, and works as a means for them to acknowledge the collective effort of this initiative, as well as offering them a sense of belonging and participation to the community.

What Giortes Rokkas achieved, is to associate classical music with the area, although there is absolutely no tradition or previous connection or relation of it with the area. As the Chairman of the Organising Committee says, quality and identity are the two poles of the distinctiveness of Giortes Rokkas which contributed to this association. Quality with reference to the level of musicians performing and not the music genre itself—suggesting that classical music is not inherently of a better quality—and identity in the sense of relating a cultural event to the local community through their involvement in its creation.

There is minimum intervention in the natural landscape with regards to the infrastructure and facilities for the main event as there is a stage but no chairs for the audience who sit on the ground during the concert. In that sense there is a striking contradiction between the mountainous landscape where Giortes Rokkas is held and western classical music, usually performed in highly formal settings, which adds positively to the experience of both the audience and the inhabitants through creating a unique atmosphere that is not found in a traditional concert hall. All other events take place literally in the villages—in houses, yards, gardens, squares and surrounding open spaces.

One of the main aims of the artistic team is to make the inhabitants feel they are not alone in something that could easily feel beyond their means. Supporting the inhabitants in the production is made possible in two ways. First, by gathering a team of 15 volunteers from outside the two villages, who are hosted by the inhabitants and in return assist them in the organisation and management of the events. These volunteers also have access to rehearsals and can actively participate in the various events. Second, by initiating a Friends of Rokka list expanding the circle of people associated with Giortes Rokkas, without, however, depending on them for in situ help. Friends of Rokka may not provide help during the events as volunteers do, but participate at the various events, enjoy benefits such as open discussions, rehearsals or excursions organised by Giortes Rokkas.

Volunteering plays a crucial role not only in helping to keep costs low but most importantly as a means of multi-level connection among the local community itself, and among the inhabitants and the outsider volunteers. The model of volunteering adopted here is based on a different motivation, which is not only to offer assistance in the various production tasks but also to provide support, encouragement and empowerment to the inhabitants to respond to production tasks with which they are totally unfamiliar.

The gradual expansion of Giortes Rokkas led to the introduction of education programmes and workshops, with an aim for the initiative to have a strong long-term impact through education. Education programmes include lantern and mosaic making and are a meeting point for the children of the region. Workshop topics have included stone carving and jewellery-making. All education programmes and workshops are free, as well as admission to the main event as part of the Ministry policy with regards to the August full moon initiative. The educational programmes aim to make participating children experience the village through art and culture offering them a different perspective than that of just visiting their relatives, usually grandparents, in the summer.

Educational programmes and workshops such as, for example, stone carving and jewellery-making were selected because of their relation to the area and history: stone carving was a traditional local activity and jewellery-making used an ancient local technique. The latter was also targeted particularly at the women of the area, with an aim to assist them in practising it professionally and thus encourage female entrepreneurship in the area.

The growth in the number of visitors from the first season in 2013 can be found in Table 8.1 below (Giortes Rokkas did not take place in 2020 because of the COVID-19 pandemic restrictions). As the table demonstrates, the number of audiences has been continuously increasing since the first year of Giortes Rokkas. Although the main event on the day of the August full moon generates the largest attendance, there is participation in all of the events, for example, in 2018, 400 participants took part in the classical mandolin and mixed-strings seminar and 25% of audiences in the theatre events were children.

Table 8.1 Giortes Rokkas visitorship
Full size table

In 2018, Giortes Rokkas attracted the attention of Google through Google Grow Tourism Online, a programme spreading the use of digital competence in tourism and entrepreneurship including NGOs and cultural organisations. In an attempt to support the initiative and develop it into a model for similar cases in Greece, Google visited the villages, sent a team that observed the complete preparations for the season and created a short video (Grow with Google, 2018), provided livestreaming for the main event and organised a seminar as part of the programme for that season. Later that year Giortes Rokkas were recommended by Google as an example of the repopulation and development of rural areas through culture.

The creation of a common language of communication between people with different experiences and know-how is among the most important characteristics of Giortes Rokkas. The inhabitants are involved with an artistic genre that is foreign to them, one they would not choose to attend or may even reject as audiences, and have no knowledge of cultural policy and management. Western classical music is far from their everyday lives, tradition and education and they never had the opportunity to attend a classical music concert either live or online before Giortes Rokkas was launched. The artistic team managed to convince them that focusing on classical music for the main event would have positive effects for the area, which they then have experienced themselves as both villages have become a point of reference at a local, regional and national level through providing high-quality cultural events. This has benefited both villages as it has drawn local and national audiences and has re-ignited an interest in them and in the wider area. Giortes Rokkas is now an established initiative not only locally but also nationally, with a loyal audience that attends the main event and participates in the activities organised every year.

The impact of Giortes Rokkas is already strong, with children of the villages starting violin lessons after attending their first symphony orchestra performance there. The impact of education and the interaction through culture is also visible with one of the students of the first year practising stone carving in a semi-professional way and returning as a teacher in 2018.

The rationale of Giortes Rokkas is summarised in one of the interviewee’s words “here there is a future for everyone, young and old”. Giortes Rokkas enabled the permanent residents of both villages to become more involved with their place, it provided incentives for the young people to return in the summer and open their homes and it also boosted visitors to both villages, making them a pole of attraction for tourism throughout the year. It also enabled the inhabitants to re-establish affection, love and pride for their region; instead of a constant alienation, which was the case in the past, they have developed an endearment and attachment to their villages and the area with already tangible results: they stopped selling their properties and leave the village, many houses were renovated, a new coffee shop opened and there are around 15 rooms available to rent as people return and spend time in the area. The village also entered a regeneration programme that improved its infrastructure—roads, street lighting, pavements and underground wires.

Conclusions

Ebrey (2016) claims that cultural policy neglects everyday life in four ways: it is the territory of cultural experts rather than based on everyday experiences; it has been instrumentalised to serve economic life; it does not examine the interconnection of the micro and the macro; and is very much focused on individual choices, overlooking communal practices. Giortes Rokkas is a case that contradicts all four.

Giortes Rokkas is an example that challenges established notions of expert programming and cultural expertise, as well as the role of the state in cultural policy. Originally stimulated by national cultural policy, it has grown organically based on collective participation and input from all the inhabitants of both villages. It is a model based on local actors, self-management and a construction of a communicative space, physical and virtual, through culture-making and culture-managing and involves a highly localised approach to artistic programming, crowdfunding, education programmes, production and volunteering. In this model the local community is actively involved in all stages and assumes the role of policy-maker, producer and audience at the same time. It emerged in a framework that is inadequately catered for by state cultural policy and came out of a vision to provide high-quality cultural events and re-ignite interest in the area. In this sense, it makes up for the absence of state provided systematic cultural policy support and also showcases how cultural policy can emerge by non-experts.

The flourishing of cultural policy here is connected with the situated-ness and particularities of the villages, as well as with the engagement of all inhabitants, particularly because of their small number. Rural areas with small populations are not usually a priority for state or regional cultural policy, which most of the times caters for areas with a larger population or areas of touristic interest, and even when it does focus on rural areas it concentrates on inherent cultural genres such as folk culture and tradition. Additionally to that, inhabitants of rural Crete are characterised by an intense connection and sense of ownership to their villages, especially in semi-mountainous or mountainous villages with small populations and few external interactions. A top-down approach would therefore not be viable for the inhabitants as there would be fear of control of the process and violation of their land by outsiders. In that sense, there is great power in the collective approach adopted here: it not only safeguards viability of the undertaking, but also reinforces the association of inhabitants with place, strengthens cohesion and the sense of community; it also enables the inhabitants to develop a relationship and a sense of ownership of Giortes Rokkas, particularly important given that it evolved around art genres unfamiliar to them.

The uniqueness of the Giortes Rokkas model lies in the fact that it is based on the use of non-innate, “outside”, culture as a tool for building a distinctive local identity. An example of neo-endogenous rural development, Giortes Rokkas uses a combination of local and extralocal resources for the benefit of the area but is also based on internal and external networks, the mobilisation of which is aimed at the development of the villages and the area. The vision of Giortes Rokkas, as stated in the relevant part of their website, of a “restoration of a viable framework for inland communities through the practices of cultural management” (Giortes Rokkas, 2022) aimed to bring life to the villages which, with only 60 inhabitants in total, were in danger of being abandoned within the next decade. Giortes Rokkas, as one of the interviewees says, managed to put the two villages in the minds of the visitors and back on the map of the region, giving life to the area through culture. It provides incentives for those who have left to return and revitalise the area, connects the local community, provides a continuation for the next generations and creates opportunities for young people to choose a career path related to the area.

The main problem in depopulated and isolated areas is how to attract people and repopulate them; as the Chairman argues, “nobody will have children in a village where they won’t have other children to play with”. Greek villages have nowadays more income than they had 50 years ago, but that does not make them attractive. What they are lacking is a vibrant human network, a social fabric strengthened by common experiences, and opportunities for communication and cultural exchange that are strengthened through the communication between internal and external actors. Cases such as Giortes Rokkas can help rural areas rethink and reposition themselves as places and can provide tools to bring life back to depopulated areas.

Notes

  1. 1.

    The network of protected areas of Europe’s valuable or threatened species and natural habitats (European Environment Agency, 2021).

  2. 2.

    According to the Greek census of 2011, there are Cretan villages with as few as three inhabitants (Seventh Health Region of Crete, 2015).

  3. 3.

    Declaration of a site as archaeological site took place for reasons of protection, research and promotion of important antiquities which include remains of an ancient city and a cemetery of the Hellenistic period (323-30 BC) (Permanent list of declared archaeological sites and monuments in Greece, 2012).