Cultural Identities and Integration in Rural Greece

Abstract

The paper explores the ways in which cultural policy in rural areas in Greece has attempted to confront the ‘de‐traditionalization’ of rural communities provoked by the integration process of the agricultural economies of the country in a global context. It is argued that the establishment of infrastructures at local level that were expected both to support local cultures and to enable the diffusion of forms and products of contemporary culture, have failed to satisfy the needs of the local communities involved in the process of modernization and to counteract the deprivation experienced by members of the younger generation in matters of leisure and entertainment. Therefore, it seems necessary to proceed with a re‐orientation of cultural policies that will abandon conventional tendencies to folklorize whatever is construed as ‘rural culture’, and will re‐establish the connections between past and present, as well as farm economy and local social and cultural contexts. Moreover, paying attention to ethnographic findings concerning the ongoing construction of collective cultural identity at local level, as well as to local histories and peculiarities, may provide a basis for ‘rethinking’ the aims and methods of cultural policies.