We all may know about the three sustainability pillars as the economy, society, and the environment. These principles are also informally used for profit, people, and the planet[1].
But how about Culture? This micro article provides you with an articulate summary of the highly cited scientific paper about cultural sustainability published in the Geoforum journal with over 465 citations by 2021. In the policy field, culture has been mentioned as an aspect of social sustainability and occasionally even as an aspect or dimension of its own[2]. There has been growing interest in policy and among scholars in considering culture as an aspect of sustainable development. Culture is now considered the fourth pillar in sustainability pillars by many scholars.
But how does culture contribute to the framework of sustainable development? The amazing investigation by Soini and Birkeland from the University of Jyväskylä in Finland and Telemark University College in Norway [2] presented the cultural sustainability around seven storylines of heritage, vitality, economic viability, diversity, locality, eco-cultural resilience, and eco-cultural civilization. It was discussed that the storylines of cultural sustainability have different positions and roles within sustainable development. While some of these roles are more autonomous, others are more instrumental. However, it is clear that culture adds to and extends sustainable development discourse by making it both more complex and easier by stressing the need to explain, clarify, and legitimate itself in relation to not only science and policy but to a broader public. They believe that under the umbrella of cultural sustainability, there is a range of representations of political ideologies, from conservatism to liberalism to communitarianism and environmentalism, those express solutions to various social and environmental problems related to sustainable development.
Soini et al. approached cultural sustainability as becoming a vehicle to discuss, interpret, and relate to change in the meaning and role of sustainable development. The implications of cultural sustainability should be analyzed further with the discourse on sustainable development and other related concepts, such as eco-social resilience, ecological modernization, and cultural diversity.
This micro article, which provides a summary of the amazing article published by Soini et al. in 2014, attempted to illuminate the importance of addressing culture and emphasise the need for broader understandings of culture in sustainable development discourse.
The storylines summarized in this micro article about cultural sustainability discourse illuminate that knowing about cultures is very important to achieve sustainable development. Learning about other cultures can be a bridge between all nations to make the world a better place to live.
Here in MIRAS GAMES, we aim to provide this chance to explore the culture in different storylines in the form of the game to communicate with the stakeholders (people of all nations), with different interests and backgrounds with a wide range of stories to facilitate the way toward cultural sustainability discourse effectively.
Please let us know your thoughts about the cultural sustainability storylines of culture introduced in this micro article and help us to make our unique definition and storyline within the MIRASGAMES community.
Kindly share this article with your friends and family worldwide.
References
- Sustainability – What Is It? Definition, Principles, and Examples. 2021; Available from: https://youmatter.world/en/definition/definitions-sustainability-definition-examples-principles/.
- Soini, K. and I. Birkeland, Exploring the scientific discourse on cultural sustainability. Geoforum, 2014. 51: p. 213-223.