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 current volume is a result of the Seventh and Eighth International Forum on Sustainable Technological Development in a Globalizing World. The Seventh Forum was held June 9-12, 2010 in Berlin. The Karlsruhe Institute of Technology hosted the event, which was organized around culture and sustainability. What we each value as a society, as a country, in our culture, is what we want to protect. What is sustainable is only what we value. This applies all the more to sustainable development which is planned for long time scales and therefore to go beyond individual sustainable technology solutions as well as economic and political cycles. What we hold in high regard is the result of cultural influences. Consequently, we need cultural change in the sense of sustainable development in order to secure sustainability pathways in the long term. The key question arising is whether and how this change can be brought about. The following Introduction leads us into the specific discussion. At the end of the Seventh Forum, participants concluded that more specific case studies would be useful and recommended that the Eighth Forum provide a focus for case studies. Since the remainder of the Eighth Forum, held March 8-10, 2011, in Melbourne, Florida, focused on Alternative Energy with oral papers not really appropriate as written papers, it was decided to include the case studies in combination with those papers from Berlin to provide a holistic discussion of culture and sustainability. That is the concept for this volume."--P.13-14.

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.

Meeting the aims of sustainability is becoming increasingly difficult; at the same time, the call for culture is becoming more powerful. This book explores the relationships between culture, sustainability and regional change through the concept of ‘territorialisation’. This new concept describes the dynamics and processes in the context of regional development, driven by collective human agency that stretches beyond localities and marked-off regional boundaries. This book launches the concept of ‘territorialisation’ by exploring how the natural environment and culture are constitutive of each other. This concept allows us to study the characterisation of the natural assets of a place, the means by which the natural environment and culture interact, and how communities assign meaning to local assets, add functions and ascribe rules of how to use space. By highlighting the time-space dimension in the use and consumption of resources, territorialisation helps to frame the concept and grasp the meaning of sustainable regional development. Drawing on an international range of case studies, the book addresses both conceptual issues and practical applications of ‘territorialisation’ in a range of contexts, forms, and scales. The book will be of great interest to researchers and postgraduates in sustainable development, environmental studies, and regional development and planning.

Cultural vitality is an essential to a healthy and sustainable society as social equity, envrinmental responsibilty and economic viability. In order for public planning to be more effective, its methodology should include an integrated framework of cultural evaluation similar to social, environmental and economic assessment.