Several non-profit cultural organisations opened up public spaces during the financial crisis in Lisbon with a particular concentration in the Anjos neighbourhood. These organisations promote different activities, ranging from debates, exibitions, traditional dancing, activist cinema to bars. This article aims to convey the transformative role they played for individuals, the neighbourhood and the city. Although facing challenges over organisational sustainability as they are not publicly funded, these organisations do seem to have reinvented the mission of the century-old recreational societies through their convivial and transdisciplinary activities. Based on documental analysis and interviews with different actors, we map this vibrant neighbourhood and show that these hybrid organisations represent what cultural democracy may today look like, while providing resilient responses to the contextual challenges.

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Cultural organisations,Alternative spaces,Economic crisis,Cultural democracy

• Sociologia - Ciências Sociais