The formation and transformation of the modern Greek city was accompanied by the gradual disorganization of undisciplined social enclaves. Today, a few decades after their flourishing, these spaces are covered by a veil of oblivion. Official history ignores them, they are absent from public commemorative events, and interest within the academic community is limited.

The study by Giannis Zaïmakis traces the portrait of an eccentric social enclave of the past during the transition of Heraklion from a multicultural society in the years of the Cretan State to a city of the modern Greek state, adapted to the urban paradigm of modernization. The Lakko is a space of recreational practices and indigenous cultural creation that is organized in an environment of illicit transactions, ethnic mingling, and commercial love, where local codes regulate behaviors that evade established rules and pose a risk to social cohesion.

The world of the 'thriving origins' of Lakko challenges the value system, undermines urban moral standards, and activates fantasies. In Lakko, love, whether illicit or legal, has its own codes and valuations. Song and dance constitute significant social practices where identity is tested and evaluated, and local hierarchies are sanctioned. The daily social game is characterized by strategies of prestige assertion, aimed at affirming a distinct identity. Individuality adapts to the strength of the local code, and the mechanisms of inducting individuals ensure its reproduction.