Sustainable Cultural Management

The connections between culture and sustainability have been in the public agenda since the 20th century. However, whilst global sustainability programmes at international institutional levels are yet to recognise the role of culture in their sustainability policies, the bid (albeit failed) in the early 2000s to formally add “culture” to the trilogy of sustainability pillars (economic, social, and environmental) mobilised a new discourse for the reframing of cultural policy narrative, which in turn urged a reassessment of methods of cultural management reflecting the same concerns among the sector’s grassroots. The idea of sustainability and culture working together and their envisioned role in future-proofing society and human development captured the imagination of cultural commentators, policy makers and practitioners alike, keen to fulfil these principles “out there”—in cultural organizations and events mega and small, in cities and regions, local and global. The papers in this Special Issue reflect this appeal. This publication covers a wide selection of issues related to sustainable cultural management, which means that it can be recommended to a varied audience. First of all, it can be recommended to managers experienced in cultural management, where success is measured more by the degree of mission accomplishment and the social benefits achieved rather than by profit. Another group comprises the employees of cultural organizations who want to improve their knowledge of sustainable cultural management. This Special Issue can also be recommended to artists, researchers, students, state and local government employees, founders and patrons of art, and all those who want to understand the importance of sustainable cultural management.

The connections between culture and sustainability have been in the public agenda since the 20th century. However, whilst global sustainability programmes at international institutional levels are yet to recognise the role of culture in their sustainability policies, the bid (albeit failed) in the early 2000s to formally add “culture” to the trilogy of sustainability pillars (economic, social, and environmental) mobilised a new discourse for the reframing of cultural policy narrative, which in turn urged a reassessment of methods of cultural management reflecting the same concerns among the sector's grassroots. The idea of sustainability and culture working together and their envisioned role in future-proofing society and human development captured the imagination of cultural commentators, policy makers and practitioners alike, keen to fulfil these principles “out there”--in cultural organizations and events mega and small, in cities and regions, local and global. The papers in this Special Issue reflect this appeal. This publication covers a wide selection of issues related to sustainable cultural management, which means that it can be recommended to a varied audience. First of all, it can be recommended to managers experienced in cultural management, where success is measured more by the degree of mission accomplishment and the social benefits achieved rather than by profit. Another group comprises the employees of cultural organizations who want to improve their knowledge of sustainable cultural management. This Special Issue can also be recommended to artists, researchers, students, state and local government employees, founders and patrons of art, and all those who want to understand the importance of sustainable cultural management.

This book explores the relevance of new sources, dimensions, and characteristics of knowledge for supporting creative and cultural organizations and initiatives. Special emphasis is placed on cultural heritage, participatory approaches, and entrepreneurship in the cultural and creative sector. The role of cultural heritage and contemporary culture as a source of economically effective, socially sustainable development is also discussed. The authors examine new ways of developing and testing new and innovative models of management for cultural heritage assets. In line with the participatory approaches in culture heritage governance promoted by the EU, the authors analyze participatory approaches to cultural and creative initiatives. The role of public and private actors, as well as the way they interact with each other in order to achieve collective outcomes, is of particular interest in this section of the book. With regard to cultural and creative entrepreneurship, the book adds an innovative view of cultural ventures, offering some clues from an entrepreneurial ecosystem perspective.

This book provides a multidisciplinary approach to Corporate Social Responsibility. While for decades a purely mathematical-technical orientation dominated the business curriculum, this book presents CSR and sustainability as a business concept embedded in its cultural and spiritual context. It initially approaches practical wisdom from different cultural and religious traditions as a source of spiritual capital for sustainable business practices. Subsequently, it links current CSR concepts and the latest thinking in CSR with long-standing cultural and spiritual knowledge, promoting a more comprehensive view on sustainability management and its implementation at business enterprises. The book collects and unites viewpoints from various cultural and religious contexts, offering a comprehensive guide for international and globally active companies.

European cities are contributing to the development of a more sustainable urban system that is capable of coping with economic crises, ecological challenges and social disparities in different nation-states and regions throughout Europe. This book reveals in a pluralistic way how European cities are generating new approaches to their sustainable development, and the special contribution of culture to these processes. It addresses both a deficit of attention to small and medium-sized cities in the framework of European sustainable development, and an underestimation of the role of culture, artistic expression and creativity for integrated development of the city as a prerequisite to urban sustainability. On the basis of a broad collection of case studies throughout Europe, representing a variety of regionally specific cultural models of sustainable development, the book investigates how participative culture, community arts, and more generally, creativity of civic imagination are conducive to the goal of a sustainable future of small and medium-sized cities. This is an essential volume for researchers and postgraduate students in urban studies, cultural studies, cultural geography and urban sociology as well as for policymakers and practitioners wanting to understand the specificity of European cities as hubs of innovation, creativity and artistic industriousness.

Cultural attractions play an important role in tourism at all levels, and attract huge numbers of tourists interested in heritage and the arts. Cultural Heritage Tourism has positive economic and social impacts but can also have negative impacts on communities and regions. This book draws together and links ideas of tourism from sustainable marketing perspectives and embeds it within a heritage management setting. Through a discussion and analysis of existing literature and practices this book aims to propose a marketing strategy framework grounded in sustainable principles that can be used to sustain and preserve the authenticity of cultural heritage for future generations, whilst appealing to the suppliers, the regulators, and the consumers. The book first explains the dynamics of cultural heritage with its authenticity underpinnings, marketing, and tourism, and proposes a strategic praxis drawn from core sustainable principles. This is followed by a pragmatic examination of the proposed framework from the shaper’s (provider’s) perspective. The material presented in this book is not merely an agglomeration of documented secondary research, but the theoretical concepts are grounded in empirical research and interactive discussions with students and the travel and tourism industry. A variety of heritage institutions across the globe are used as starting points to test the applicability of the proposed paradigm: these include museums, historic house museums, heritage hotels/resorts, festivals, and heritage merchandize. This is a timely offering to a growing and vibrant area of research; what is most pertinent is that it is a thorough and fresh take on the topic with primary research included. It will find a place in student materials for a variety of courses and it should be read by practicing academics and researchers.

This book explores cultural sustainability and its relationships to heritage from a wide interdisciplinary perspective. By examining the interactions between people and communities in the places where they live it exemplifies the diverse ways in which a people-centred heritage builds identities and supports individual and collective memories. It encourages a view of heritage as a process that contributes through cultural sustainability to human well-being and socially- and culturally-sensitive policy. With theoretically-informed case studies from leading researchers, the book addresses both concepts and practice, in a range of places and contexts including landscape, townscape, museums, industrial sites, every day heritage, ‘ordinary’ places and the local scene, and even UNESCO-designated sites. The contributors, most of whom, like the editors, were members of the COST Action ‘Investigating Cultural Sustainability’, demonstrate in a cohesive way how the cultural values that people attach to place are enmeshed with issues of memory, identity and aspiration and how they therefore stand at the centre of sustainability discourse and practice. The cases are drawn from many parts of Europe, but notably from the Baltic, and central and south-eastern Europe, regions with distinctive recent histories and cultural approaches and heritage discourses that offer less well-known but transferable insights. They all illustrate the contribution that dealing with the inheritance of the past can make to a full cultural engagement with sustainable development. The book provides an introductory framework to guide readers, and a concluding section that draws on the case studies to emphasise their transferability and specificity, and to outline the potential contribution of the examples to future research, practice and policy in cultural sustainability. This is a unique offering for postgraduate students, researchers and professionals interested in heritage management, governance and community participation and cultural sustainability.

This book highlights the challenges and trends resulting from the relationship between tourist motivations, World Heritage Sites and local cultural uniqueness. With a special focus on Portugal and Brazil, several chapters refer to international cultural heritage experiences and destinations in Belgium, Cuba, Croatia, Italy, Japan, South Africa, Spain and Turkey. The volume shows that there is some crossover between tangible and intangible cultural heritage, and explores themes such as festivals and events, marketing, branding, sustainability, authenticity, preservation, wine tourism, ethnic tourism, religious tourism, literary tourism, museology and garden tourism. It will appeal to readers interested in tourism management, quality of the tourist offer, tourism heritage products, and characteristics of the tourism demand in the scope of cultural heritage.