Cultural/Social Sustainability

As the class text hasn't really covered this much, I've had to do a little independent research to get a sense of what social and cultural sustainability look like. Here's my resources that I've read so far:

Enyedi, G. (2002). Social sustainability of large cities. Ekistics, 69(412-414), 142-144. Retrieved from http://www.ekistics.org/EJournal.htm

Kallstrom, H. N. & Ljung, M. (2005). Social sustainability and collaborative learning. Ambio, 34(4/5), 376-382. Retrieved from http://www.springer.com/environment/journal/13280

Kong, L. (2009). Making sustainable creative/cultural space in Shanghai and Singapore. Geographical Review, 99(1), 1-22. Retrieved from http://www.amergeog.org/gr/grhome.html

Interesting reads for those inclined. I believe I can start to formulate a loose understanding of social and cultural sustainability thus far:

Cultural Sustainability (mostly from Kong): The ability for society to produce locally-created cultural products (theater, art, music, etc.) and make them commonly accessible to the population. Also the ability for those products to integrate into the regular day-to-day operation of the population's lives. This is done while maintaining an openness and appreciation for external cultural products.

Social Sustainability (mostly from Kallstrom & Ljung): The ability for individuals to interact on a social plane, supported by the culture, and receiving affirmation from three dimensions: love/care, rights and solidarity. Inclusion in decision-making processes on those aspects that affect the individual, and the assurance of this as a human/democratic right.

I've still got a lot to mull over, but the first few things that pop up is with Kong's work, identifying the economic/cultural tightrope that is walked with cultural product. What is popular and sells well (economics) doesn't necessarily benefit the culture at all. This is clear with the milieu of repetition on cultural products in the US. The saying that there's only six movie scripts in Hollywood, and everything else is a variation on that theme. TV, theater, music, kind of the same as well. Money goes to produce cultural product that's economically profitable, not culturally sustaining.

Sad :-(

- Jason