Culture and leisure cluster in the post-industrial city: The case of Metaxourghio in Athens

Abstract

During the last years globalisation has greatly changed the financial features and structure of post-modern cities. Urban space is subject to continuous transformations; superstructures, whose aims are to increase the competitiveness of the place and the reorganization and diffusion to a large extent, tend to make the former "compact city" disappear. The landscape of a post-industrial city is dominated by distinguishable symbolic centres (clusters) that are categorized as culture and leisure clusters, but also as enterprise clusters. They occupy central territorial units of urban space, altering the character of degraded and historical regions. The present paper looks into the case of Metaxourghio, a historical quarter in the centre of Athens, which is currently developing into a cluster of culture and popular leisure.