Culture in for and as Sustainable Development

Multiple contributions of culture to
sustainable development
The overall issue is a need to make
culture more explicit in the academic
and policy debate on sustainable
development: I refer here to a view
of culture in and for sustainable
development which is understood
in dynamic interaction with nature.
Culture, as an ensemble of tangible
vectors of social life, comprises a
natural dimension. It is this dimension
that should be resurrected in
order to strengthen and make more
tangible the role of culture in sustainable
development.
(Constanza Parra)
SEVEN STORYLINES OF CULTURAL
SUSTAINABILITY
In their paper in GeoForum [14], ‘Exploring the scientific
discourse of cultural sustainability’, Soini and Birkeland
reported on their analysis of the diverse meanings that
were being applied in scientific publications, at that stage
in the development of this field of study, and as the COST
Action began its work, to the concept of ‘cultural sustainability’.
The study showed that the scientific discourse on
cultural sustainability could be organised around seven
principal ‘story lines’ or narratives: heritage, vitality, economic
viability, diversity, locality, eco-cultural resilience
and eco-cultural civilisation.
Some of the storylines referred to culture as the fourth
pillar of sustainability, while others saw culture as contributing
to achieve social, economic or ecological goals
of sustainability, or culture as a necessary foundation for
a transition to a truly sustainable society. Moreover, although
also interlinked and overlapping, the storylines
were relatable to four different contexts, ideologies, attitudes
or ways of thinking that can be labelled conservative,
neoliberal, communitarian and environmentalist.
These contexts provide further perspectives on the diverse
political ideologies and policy arenas in which cultural
sustainability must operate.
28 The overall issue is a need to make
(Katriina Soini, Inger Birkeland)
In this publication, we recognise that culture
is capable of being integrated within sustainable
development in three more-or-less separate
but never fully distinctive and indeed
often interlocking ways, or ‘roles’. These are
derived from a literature review of scientific
articles using the concept of ‘cultural sustainability’
[13] . Each role is discussed in
more detail below, but to summarise:
• First, a supportive and self-promoting role
(characterised as ‘culture in sustainable
development’), which simply, and fairly uncontroversially,
expands conventional sustainable
development discourse by adding
culture as a more or less self-standing
or freestanding 4 th pillar. Culture stands,
linked but autonomous, alongside separate
ecological, social, and economic
considerations and imperatives of sustainability.
• Second, a role (‘culture for sustainable
development’) which offers culture as a
more influential force that can operate
beyond itself; this role moves culture into
a framing, contextualising and mediating
mode, that can balance all three of the
pillars and guide sustainable development
between economic, social, and ecological
pressures and needs (which of course
grow out of human cultural aspirations
and actions).