Cultural sustainability

Cultural sustainability as it relates to sustainable development, has to do with the maintaining of cultural beliefs, cultural practices, heritage conservation, culture as its own entity, and attempts to answer the question of whether or not any given cultures will exist in the context of the future. Culture is defined as a set of beliefs, morals, methods, and a collection of human knowledge that is dependent on the transmission of these characteristics to younger generations. Sustainability is defined as the ability to sustain or continue. The two concepts have been intertwined within social and political domains, and as such, have become one of the more important concepts of sustainability.

First mentioned in 1995, cultural sustainability also presents viable options within the realm of social policy, providing solutions to sustainable development issues.

Cultural Sustainability can be regarded as a fundamental issue, even a precondition to be met on the path towards sustainable development. However, the theoretical and conceptual understanding of cultural sustainability within the general frames of Sustainable Development remains vague and consequently, the role of culture is poorly implemented in the environmental, as well as political and social policy. Determining the impact of Cultural Sustainability is found by investigating the concept of culture in the context of Sustainable development, through multidisciplinary approaches and analyses. This means examining the best practices for bringing culture into political and social policy as well as practical domains, and developing means and indicators for assessing the impacts of culture on Sustainable Development.

Cultural sustainability has always been categorized under the social pillar of the three pillars of sustainability, but with recent developments within this field considerations are being made in order to make Cultural Sustainability its own pillar, due to its growing importance within social, political, environmental, and economic spheres. The importance of cultural sustainability lies within its influential power over the people, as decisions that are made within the context of society are heavily weighed by the beliefs of that society.

Culture has an overwhelming effect on social, economic and political planning, but as of yet, has failed to be incorporated into social and political policy on a grand scale, however, certain policies regarding both policy and politics have managed to be implemented into some conventions that are implemented on a global scale. Culture is found everywhere within a society, from the relics of previous generations, to the accumulated values of a society. Culture within society can be divided into two, equally important subtopics that aid in the description of cultural specific characterizations. These categories, as defined by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) are "Material" and "Immaterial". Material objects such as shrines, paintings, buildings, landscapes and other humanistic formations act as a physical representation of the culture in that area. Although they have little social and political utility, they serve as physical landmarks and culturally dependant objects whose meaning is created and maintained within the context of that society. The accumulation of these cultural characteristics are what measures a society's cultural integrity, and these characteristics are inherently capable of transforming landscapes of political, social, & environment nature via the influence that these values and historical remains have on the population. Little success has come with the implementations of cultural policy within the context of politics due to a lack of empirical information regarding the topic of cultural sustainability. The Immaterial category contains more socially and politically applicable characteristics such as practices, traditions, aesthetics, knowledge, expressions etc. These characteristics embody social and political utility through education of people, housing, social justice, Human Rights, employment and more. These values contribute to the wellbeing of a society through the use of collective thinking and ideals i.e. culture. Culture also presents more room for expansion on its effects on a society. Specifically, creativity, respect, empathy, and other practices are being used to create social integration and also to create a sense of "self" in the world.

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Wikipedia