Cultural sustainability

Cultural sustainability as it relates to sustainable development (or to sustainability), has to do with maintaining cultural beliefs, cultural practices, heritage conservation, culture as its own entity, and the question of whether or not any given cultures will exist in the future.^[2] From cultural heritage to cultural and creative industries, culture is both an enabler and a driver of the economic, social, and environmental dimensions of sustainable development.^[3] Culture is defined as a set of beliefs, morals, methods, institutions and a collection of human knowledge that is dependent on the transmission of these characteristics to younger generations.^[4] Cultural sustainability has been categorized under the social pillar of the three pillars of sustainability, but some argue that cultural sustainability should be its own pillar, due to its growing importance within social, political, environmental, and economic spheres.^[2] 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.^[2][5]

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.^[6]