Exploring the scientific discourse on cultural sustainability Katriina Soini a,⇑ , Inger Birkeland b a Department of Social Sciences and Philosophy, Cultural Policy, Agrifood Research Finland, MTT, Economic Research, P.O. Box 35, FIN-40014 University of Jyväskylä, Finland b Telemark University College, Department of Culture and Humanities, Gullbringvegen 36, 3800 Bø i Telemark, Norway article info Article history: Received 6 November 2012 Received in revised form 5 October 2013 Keywords: Culture Sustainable development Cultural sustainability Discourse Storylines Political context abstract There has been growing interest in policy and among scholars to consider culture as an aspect of sustain- able development and even as a fourth pillar. However, until recently, the understanding of culture within the framework of sustainable development has remained vague. In this study, we investigate the scientific discourse on cultural sustainability by analyzing the diverse meanings that are applied to the concept in scientific publications. The analysis shows that the scientific discourse on cultural sustain- ability is organized around seven storylines: heritage, vitality, economic viability, diversity, locality, eco- cultural resilience, and eco-cultural civilization. These storylines are partly interlinked and overlapping, but they differ in terms of some contextualized aspects. They are related to four political and ideological contexts, conservative, neoliberal, communitarian, and environmentalist, which provide interesting per- spectives on the political ideologies and policy arenas to which cultural sustainability may refer. Some of the story lines establish the fourth pillar of sustainability, whereas others can be seen as instrumental, contributing to the achievement of social, economic, or ecological goals of sustainability. The eco-cultural civilization story line suggests culture as a necessary foundation for the transition to a truly sustainable society. Ó 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. 1. Introduction 1.1. Background The concept of sustainable development was introduced in 1987 by the Brundtland Commission, formally known as the World Commission on Environment and Development (WCED), as part of the report ‘Our Common Future’. In the report, sustainable devel- opment was specified as ‘‘development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs’’ (WCED, 1987, 43). The definition broadly refers to global and intragenerational equity and fairness in the distribution of welfare, utilities, and resources between genera- tions. Since this time, the concept has frequently been used in re- search and policy. The concept has become a part of educational programs and is well known among the general public. Although the concept has faced considerable criticism, its relevance has per- sisted and, with increasing environmental and social challenges, has attracted attention in science and policy. This popularity may be explained by the way the concept unites imaginative and reformist views of environmental policy (Dryzek, 2013) as well as by its elusiveness. Due to the multi-interpretability of the concept, many stakeholders may connect with it (Buckingham and Turner, 2008). Sustainable development is often considered to consist of eco- logical, economic, and social dimensions, or ‘pillars’ (Connelly, 2007; Black, 2007). These pillars were established in the Sustain- able Development Congress in Johannesburg (2002) and have been developed further by scholars. The origins of sustainable development lie within ecological concerns, and the environmen- tal dimension has consequently been the most frequently dis- cussed dimension. Nevertheless, the social dimension and institutional aspects are increasingly seen as important in achiev- ing environmental aims (see, e.g., Boström, 2012). Economic sus- tainability, as an aspect of its own, is relatively seldom discussed explicitly, but it is an essential part of discussions on ecological modernization, green economy, and bio-economy, which aim to combine ecological and social goals of sustainability through eco- nomic means. In the policy field, culture has been mentioned as an aspect of social sustainability and occasionally even as an aspect or dimen- sion of its own. In particular, during the UNESCO Decade of Culture and Development (1988–1997), the interrelationship between cul- ture and development was discussed, resulting in the WCCD Re- port ‘Our Creative Diversity’ (WCCD, 1995). Since this time, the connection between sustainable development and culture has been discussed in other international policy documents and con- ventions, such as ‘In From the Margins’ (European Council, 1997), 0016-7185/$ - see front matter Ó 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.geoforum.2013.12.001 ⇑ Corresponding author. E-mail addresses: katriina.soini@jyu.fi, katriina.soini@mtt.fi (K. Soini), Inger. birkeland@hit.no (I. Birkeland). Geoforum 51 (2014) 213–223 Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Geoforum journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/geoforum