Governing Intangible Cultural Heritage for Sustainable Local Development: Community-Based Cultural Associations and Social Capital in Kalamata, Greece

The governance of Intangible Cultural Heritage (ICH) has emerged as a critical issue for sustainable local development, particularly in cities where cultural vitality is large-ly community-driven but institutionally under-supported. This study examines the case of Kalamata, Greece, a medium-sized city with a dense network of community-based cultural associations, in order to analyse how ICH is governed in practice and how it contributes to social capital formation and sustainability outcomes. The research is based on 49 semi-structured interviews with representatives of 25 cultural associations and public or municipal bodies and employs qualitative thematic analysis. The findings demonstrate that cultural associations function as key governance actors at the com-munity level, generating strong bonding social capital through participation, informal education, and collective memory. At the same time, limited bridging and linking social capital constrain inter-organisational cooperation, institutional coordination, and the integration of ICH into long-term development strategies. The study identifies signifi-cant governance challenges, including fragmented policy frameworks, unstable fund-ing mechanisms, limited professional support, and weak participatory decision-making structures. By explicitly linking empirical findings to the Sustainable Development Goals—particularly SDGs 4.7, 11.4, 16.7, and 17—the paper highlights the importance of participatory cultural governance and co-governance models for enhancing the sus-tainability of local cultural ecosystems. The article contributes to policy-oriented de-bates on cultural sustainability by providing evidence from a Mediterranean medi-um-sized city and by proposing governance-relevant directions for integrating com-munity-based ICH into sustainable local development planning.