Description
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.
Table of Contents
Part 1: Concepts of Culture and Cultural Sustainability
1. Introduction Torsten Meireis and Gabriele Rippl
2. Culture and Sustainable Development from a UN Perspective Michael Gerber
3. The Future of Cultural Heritage and Its Challenges Aleida Assmann
4. Cultural Sustainability in Times of Cultural Genocide Wolfgang Huber
5. Sustainable Development and the Concept of Culture – An Ethical View Torsten Meireis
Part 2: Philosophy, Sociology, Economics and Cultural Sustainability
6. Sustainability and Modernisation in Conflict: On Roger Scruton’s Conservative Green Philosophy Anton Leist
7. Culture, Consumption and Sustainability in a Sociological Perspective Ulf Liebe
8. Social Happiness as a Cultural Value: An Analysis of Shared Values for Ecosystem Assessment Galit P. Wellner
9. Challenges of Cultural Sustainability on an (Inter)Planetary Scale Andreas Losch
10. Sustainability’s Promise of Salvation? A Kuhnian Reconstruction of Sustainability from Resource Management to Contingency Management Marius Christen, Peter Seele, Lucas Zapf
Part 3: The Arts, Literature and Cultural Sustainability: Theoretical, Historical and Contemporary Perspectives
11. Culture and the Arts in Sustainable Development: Rethinking Sustainability Research Sacha Kagan
12. Cultural Ecology and the Sustainability of Literature Hubert Zapf
13. An Entangled History of Environmental and Cultural Sustainability: Satirical Reflections on the German Forest and the German Oak as Resources of Cultural Energy Evi Zemanek
14. The Cultural Sustainability of Victorian Waste Ursula Kluwick
15. The Moral Dilemma of Unsustainability: Eco-dystopian Fiction as Cultural Critique Alexa Weik von Mossner
16. A Tale of Love and Fallout: Lauren Redniss’ Graphic Narrative and the Ecological Imaginary Torsten Meireis and Gabriele Rippl
17. Sustainability, Eco-Ekphrasis and the Ethics of Literary Description Gabriele Rippl
18. Ecogames: Playing to Save the Planet Joost Raessens
Part 4: Conclusion
19. Conclusion Torsten Meireis and Gabriele Rippl
