European inventory of
societal values of culture

Duxbury,, Kangas & De Beukelaer - Cultural policies for sustainable development

Duxbury, N., Kangas A. & De Beukelaer, C. (2017) Cultural policies for sustainable development: four strategic paths. International Journal of Cultural Policy, 23(2): 214-230.

In the Sustainable Development Goals adopted by the United Nations in 2015, the role of culture is limited. The authors argue that culture’s absence is rooted in the longue durée of interplay among theoretical and policy debates on culture in sustainable development and on cultural policy since the mid-twentieth century. In response to variations in concepts and frameworks used in advocacy, policy, and academia, they propose four roles cultural policy can play towards sustainable development: first, to safeguard and sustain cultural practices and rights; second, to ‘green’ the operations and impacts of cultural organizations and industries; third, to raise awareness and catalyse actions about sustainability and climate change; and fourth, to foster ‘ecological citizenship’. The challenge for cultural policy is to help forge and guide actions along these co-existing and overlapping strategic paths towards sustainable development.