Investigating Cultural Sustainability

Culture can be regarded as a fundamental issue, even a precondition to be met on the path towards Sustainable Development that is necessary to get to grips with in Europe and whole world. However, the theoretical and conceptual understanding of culture within the general frames of sustainable development remains vague and consequently, the role of culture is poorly operationalised in the enviromental and social policies. The ultimate goal of the COST Action « Investigating Cultural Sustainability » is to increase understanding of and determine the role of culture in sustainable development based on multidisciplinary principles and approaches.

The Action is co-ordinated by the University of Jyväskylä, Finland and supported by COST, which is an intergovernmental framework for European Cooperation in Science and Technology.

About Action

The ultimate goal of this COST Action is to increase understanding of and determine the role of culture in sustainable development based on multidisciplinary principles. The work will be carried out by

• investigating and operationalizing the concept of culture in the context of sustainable development through multidisciplinary approaches and analyses;
• examing the best practices for bringing culture into policy and practical domains;
• developing means and indicators for assessing the impacts of culture on sustainable development

The results of the Actions will be available for the scientific community, policy makers, administrative personnel and practitioners working with sustainability and culture from the EU to the local level.

The background, aims and implementation of the Action are described in details in the Memorandum of Understanding.

In 2013 the Action has 88 members representing 27 countries across Europe, but also Australia and New Zealand. The members and their research interests related to cultural sustainability are introduced in the pdf. publication Investigating Cultural Sustainability: Experts and Multidiciplinary Approaches.

The publication can be downloaded here : www.culturalsustainability.eu

Members and Working groups