Culture-Sustainability Relation: Towards a Conceptual Framework

Katriina Soini and Joost Dessein
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Katriina Soini: Center for Environment, University of Helsinki, P. O. Box 65, Viikinkaari 2A, Helsinki FI-00014, Finland
Joost Dessein: Social Sciences Unit, Institute for Agriculture and Fisheries Research, Burg. van Gansberghelaan 115, box 2, Merelbeke 9820, Belgium

Sustainability, 2016, vol. 8, issue 2, 1-12

Abstract: Several individual scholars and international organizations have attempted to conceptualize “culture” in its different meanings in sustainability. Despite those efforts, a tangle of different approaches are being used, reflecting the various disciplines and policy aims. In this paper we propose an interdisciplinary framework for identifying the different roles of culture in sustainability in an attempt to guide the research and policy activities in this complex field. The framework is comprised of three representations defined by a literature review on “cultural sustainability”, which are further explored through eight organizing dimensions that mark the similarities and differences between the three representations. The article reveals that the three representations are partly interlinked and that they also reveal gradients in the dynamics of the system, as well as in the human/nature interface.

Keywords: culture; sustainability; sustainable development; cultural sustainability; interdisciplinary framework (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2016
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (61)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:8:y:2016:i:2:p:167-:d:63753

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