Abstract

Medium-sized Mediterranean cities harbour extraordinary living heritage yet frequently lack the governance frameworks to sustain it equitably, a structural tension that scholarship has insufficiently addressed. This study investigates the governance gap in Kalamata, Greece (70,000 inhabitants), a paradigmatic case combining three millennia of heritage depth, an exceptional “belle époque” architectural and industrial deposit, and one of the densest voluntary cultural networks in the Greek urban system. Through an explanatory sequential mixed-methods design, a stratified resident survey (n = 517), 49 stakeholder interviews, and systematic cultural cartography (Cultural Map v7, 2026), the study documents Institutional Resilience through Cultural Civil Society (IRCC): a co-evolutionary dynamic in which voluntary cultural activity expanded precisely as institutional capacity contracted during the 2010–2018 austerity crisis, producing a resilience that is admirable as a civic achievement yet structurally fragile as a governance model. Quantitative findings reveal significant geographic inequalities in cultural access (Centre M = 3.1 vs. Eastern zones M = 2.2, p < 0.001) traceable through archival data to the post-1922 refugee settlement geography, while the culture–urban development satisfaction nexus (Spearman ρ = 0.62, p < 0.001) is theoretically interpreted through civic attachment as a proposed common underlying construct; formal mediation was not statistically tested in the present study. CDIS triangulation identifies systemic weaknesses in cultural governance and spatial equity alongside strengths in civil-society participation. Seven evidence-based policy recommendations operationalise a transferable analytical framework for comparable medium-sized Mediterranean port cities, specifically those sharing comparable historical heritage density, civil-society cultural vitality, and governance capacity constraints, rather than a broadly generalisable model.

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