COST IS 007 Investigating Cultural Sustainability (2011-2015)

European research network: Not a research project, but allows coordination of nationally funded research activities in the field

24 European COST – countries, Australia, New Zealand, Canada

90 members from variety of diciplines: sociology, anthropology,
geography, environmental studies, policy, tourism, arts, museum and
cultural studies, communication and media studies, philosophy

COST action Chair: Dr. Katriina Soini, Jyväskylä University, Finland




What are the main aims of the action?
Approaches, methodological challenges, working methods
Activities and outputs
Bulgarian Participation in the COST Action: challenges
and lessons
Aims
Aims to explore:



What does culture mean in sustainable development?
How to incorporate culture in sustainable development
framework and policies?
How to assess the impact of culture in sustainable
development?
© All copyrights reserved by Katriina Soini
Mailstones of the Action
2011-
• Inventory and mapping
2012-
• Analysis and comparisons
2013-
• Synthesis
2014-
• Recommendations
2015
• New collaborative research projects
© All copyrights reserved by Katriina Soini
Clustering of thematic fields
”Keywords”
Heritage
Governance
Human-nature
Territorial development
Arts, creativity and events
Tourism
Theories and concepts
Participation
Mobility
Methodologies
Education
Planning
Others
I Arts and creativity
II Heritage, memory
and identity
III Place-based
developoment
IV Human-Nature
Interface
© All copyrights reserved by Katriina Soini
WORKING FORM
Networking
and
mapping
.
.
.
.
.
. and
mapping
analysing
.
.
.
.
analysing and
summarizing
WORKING FORUMS
WGs, clusters, interactive exercises
Thematic working spaces ,
”laboratories”
”Arts and
creativity”
”Heritage,
memory and
identity”
”Place-based
approaches”
”Humannature
interface”
WGs, other small groups established
during the Action
OUTPUTS
”Who’s who” book,
Joint research
papers
Thematic books
Joint research
papers
A theoretical
book
Policy
recommendatio
ns
Curriculums
Joint research
projects
Academic discourse on cultural sustainability
Cultural
sustainability
Contexts
Storylines
Conservative
Heritage
Cultural vitality
Neoliberalist
Economic
viability
Communitarian
Environmental
Diversity
Eco-cultural
resilience
Locality
Cultural
evolution
Soini, K. & Birkeland, I. 2013. Exploring the scientific discourse on cultural sustainability. A paper to
be published in Geoforum.
© All copyrights reserved by Katriina Soini
I Selfstanding: Culture as a fourth pillar of
sustainability
Ecological
Economic
Social
Cultural aspects need to be
considered in addition to the
ecological, social and
economic ones, in order to
achieve sustainability.
Cultural
© All copyrights reserved by Katriina Soini
II Transversal: Culture as an instrument in
sustainable development
ecological

Culture is not only an
additional aspect, but its
role is intermediating
between the various
dimensions of
sustainability. I.e. culture
drives, processes and
translates the drawbacks
and benefits of ecological,
economic and social
development.
Culture
economic
© All copyrights reserved by Katriina Soini
social
III Fundamental: Culture as a new paradigm of
sustainability
Cultural transition or “ecocultural civilzation” is
needed to achieve more
sustainable society.
Ecological
Social
Economic
Sustainable Culture
© All copyrights reserved by Katriina Soini
List of main Activities



Workshops or conferences (2 per year)
Research Exchange (4-6 Shot term scientific missions – STSMs - in the year)
Training School(s)



A cutting edge research event: The Cultural Dimension of Sustainable Development
on the European Research Agenda, Brussels 14 November
Working groups and Panels in Conferences, e.g.





Place-based approaches in regional development, Ghent, February, 10-14, 2014
International Conference of Cultural Policy, Barcelona 2012
International Conference of Tourism, 2013
European Society for Rural Sociology, Firenze, 2013
International Conference of Cultural Memory , Skopje 2013
National workshops and publication activities
© All copyrights reserved by Katriina Soini
List of main outputs

Book series ”Culture, sustainability and development”
(working title) published by Routledge (TBC)







Four thematic books
Three books in ”pipeline”
”White paper”: summary of the results
International Master Course in Cultural Policy
Special issue in International Journal of Cultural Policy
Research Strategy
Joint research papers
© All copyrights reserved by Katriina Soini
Bulgarian participation in COST actions:
challenges and lessons






The art of international networking
The challenge for mobilization of the national resources
Cutting-edge knowledge and professional expertise
English proficiency
Logistical capacities
Institutional support: the capacity for cooperative action
at international and national level – how many joint
papers; how many interuniversity projects and university
consortiums; how many partnerships with local NGOs,
local authorities and local businesses?
The main challenge:
the culture of joint action

Innovation scoreboard 2013; the decline of Bulgaria innovation
performance most dramatic after launching the Strategy Europe 2020 –
with -18.7%.
Progress since the launch of the Europe 2020 strategy
Country groups: innovation performance per dimension
Bulgarian inputs
Imagining Europolis: Roles of Culture for a
Sustainable Urban Future (TBC)
Editors: Svetlana Hristova, Milena Dragicevic-Sesic, Nancy
Duxbury


The Sustainable City – Sofia, February 2015

THANK YOU FOR THE ATTENTION!

For more information: sv.hristova@swu.bg