Cultural Roots Of Sustainable Management

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.

If the political and social benchmarks of sustainability and sustainable development are to be met, ignoring the role of the humanities and social, cultural and ethical values is highly problematic. People’s worldviews, beliefs and principles have an immediate impact on how they act and should be studied as cultural dimensions of sustainability. Collating contributions from internationally renowned theoreticians of culture and leading researchers working in the humanities and social sciences, this volume presents an in-depth, interdisciplinary discussion of the concept of cultural sustainability and the public visibility of such research. Beginning with a discussion of the concept of cultural sustainability, it goes on to explore its interaction with philosophy, theology, sociology, economics, arts and literature. In doing so, the book develops a much needed concept of ‘culture’ that can be adapted to various disciplines and applied to research on sustainability. Addressing an important gap in sustainability research, this book will be of great interest to academics and students of sustainability and sustainable development, as well as those studying sustainability within the humanities and social sciences, such as cultural studies, ethics, theology, sociology, literature and history.

As contemporary socio-ecological challenges such as climate change and biodiversity preservation have become more important, the three pillars concept has increasingly been used in planning and policy circles as a framework for analysis and action. However, the issue of how culture influences sustainability is still an underexplored theme. Understanding how culture can act as a resource to promote sustainability, rather than a barrier, is the key to the development of cultural sustainability. This book explores the interfaces between nature and culture through the perspective of cultural sustainability. A cultural perspective on environmental sustainability enables a renewal of sustainability discourse and practices across rural and urban landscapes, natural and cultural systems, stressing heterogeneity and complexity. The book focuses on the nature-culture interface conceptualised as a place where experiences, practices, policies, ideas and knowledge meet, are negotiated, discussed and resolved. Rather than looking for lost unities, or an imaginary view of harmonious relationships between humans and nature based in the past, it explores cases of interfaces that are context-sensitive and which consciously convey the problems of scale and time. While calling attention to a cultural or ‘culturalised’ view of the sustainability debate, this book questions the radical nature-culture dualism dominating positive modern thinking as well as its underlying view of nature as pre-given and independent from human life.

The concept of sustainable development is commonly divided into environmental, economic, social and cultural dimensions. While a variety of international actors have declared the importance of culture in sustainable development, jointly articulating this clearly has been difficult. For example, the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) that were adopted by the UN General Assembly in September 2015 contained only the most fleeting mention of culture. None of the SDGs referred directly to the case for integrating culture into sustainable development planning and decision-making. The role of cultural policy has remained unclear. This book contributes to a better understanding of the role of culture in achieving sustainability, focusing on the particular roles for cultural policy in this context. Cultural sustainability is conceptualised as the sustainability of cultural and artistic practices and patterns, and to the role of cultural traits and actions to inform and compose part of the pathways towards more sustainable societies. The links between culture and sustainable development are analysed in ways that articulate and contemplate different roles for cultural policy. The contributors take up the concerns and perspectives of international, national, and local authorities and actors, illuminating ways in which these multi-scale efforts both intersect and diverge. This book was originally published as a special issue of the International Journal of Cultural Policy.

With contribiutions Francesco Bandarin, Minja Yang and Mechthild Rössler This publication is the fourth in the Heritage Studies series and aims to reflect upon the many dimensions of sustainability and sustainable development within the Heritage Studies discourse. Sustainability as a concept and sustainable development as a goal are presented in official policies within UNESCO's understanding of heritage, in its paradigmatic reflections and in the diversity of theories and methods, including many different and sometimes conflicting understandings of sustainability within this discourse. Thus, the contributors to this publication discuss sustainability as it directly concerns the potential of different approaches to World Heritage and Intangible Heritage. The inclusion of the four dimensions of sustainability - environmental, economic, social and cultural - into the Heritage Studies discourse opens a new perspective on the discourse itself.

"Sustainability and the Civil Commons" moves beyond rural roots to build a comprehensive understanding of sustainability that combines global reach with local focus.

This book examines the relationship between two divergent fields – corporate activity and heritage conservation – linking the financing of conservation and its benefits with the corporate social responsibility (CSR) goals of the private sector. Through discussion of physical conservation, benefits to heritage site visitors, sustainable development impacts, and corporate benefits such as improved reputation, this book outlines the shared value of corporate support for cultural heritage sites, and encourages financial and in-kind support for conservation and responsible activity by the private sector. Providing a convincing commercial rationale for CSR managers to engage with cultural heritage sites, this book suggests how companies may reap the benefits of CSR for heritage. Author Fiona Starr offers advice for companies looking to specialize in a unique CSR endeavor, especially those looking to engage with emerging markets. The book also provides useful strategies for heritage managers to attract CSR and financial support, offering new look at the financing of heritage conservation at both international and local levels and providing a new approach to the future of financing of cultural heritage conservation

This book provides a systemic understanding of how intangible cultural heritage (ICH) can promote sustainable development. It offers new insights on the identity-building potential of heritage practices as ‘enabler’ of development and their capacity to generate social and economic profits as ‘driver’ of development. Based on Pierre Bourdieu’s ‘Theory of Practice’, a model for the valorisation of ICH is presented, which may serve as a tool to stimulate the developmental potentials of heritage on a practical level. The functioning of the valorisation model is exemplified with a case study on a German choral tradition, which has not been officially nominated as ICH. Therewith, it is shown how the model can be applied to utilise the developmental potentials of ICH - as promoted in the Convention for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage (2003) – even beyond UNESCO’s scope. This book is of interest to cultural heritage scholars.

Cultures of Sustainability and Wellbeing: Theories, Histories and Policies examines and assesses the interdependence between sustainability and wellbeing by drawing attention to humans as producers and consumers in a post-human age. Why wellbeing ought to be regarded as essential to sustainable development is explored first from multifocal theoretical perspectives encompassing sociology, literary criticism and socioeconomics, second in relation to institutions and policies, and third with a focus on specific case studies across the world. Wellbeing and its sustainability are defined in terms of biological and cultural diversity; stages of advancement in science and technology; notions of citizenship and agency; geopolitical scenarios and environmental conditions. Wellbeing and sustainability call for enquiries into human capacities in ontological, epistemological and practical terms. A view of sustainability that revolves around material and immaterial wellbeing is based on the assumption that life quality, comfort, happiness, security, safety always posit humans as both recipients and agents. Risk and resilience in contemporary societies define the intrinsically human ability to make and consume, to act and adapt, driving the search for and fruition of wellbeing. How to sustain the dual process of exploitation and regeneration is a task that requires integrated approaches from the sciences and the humanities, jointly tracing a worldwide cartography with clear localisations. This book will be of great interest to students and researchers interested in sustainability through conceptual and empirical approaches including social theory, literary and cultural studies, environmental economics and human ecology, urbanism and cultural geography.