Cultural Rights, Sustainability and Development: are they related? If so, how?

Abstract

This article examines the relationship between the often separated ideas of rights, development and sustainability. While accepting that each is a contested term, the paper argues that the three elements can be brought together into a holistic model of positive social transformation, and in which each informs the other in creative ways. The article expands this triangulation by exploring in some detail the notion of Cultural Rights as an expansion and re-application of more classical understandings of human rights, and then links this exploration to contemporary debates in the field of culture and development. It argues that cultural rights provide the best vehicle for clarifying and applying the 2005 UNESCO Convention on the Protection and Promotion of Cultural Diversity and suggests concrete ways in which, on the one hand, culture can be more effectively integrated into holistic development discourse and practice, and, on the other, by which cultural as well as ecological sustainability can be foregrounded.

The right to culture or the right to develop cultural needs

“…Za utvrđivanje programske orijentacije ovih pozorišta i uvida u odnos prema srednjoškolskoj populaciji kao posebnoj ciljnoj grupi, izvršena je analiza (kvalitativna metoda) planova rada i programa razvoja (PRPR) direktora ovih pozorišta, statuta pozorišta i obavljeni su struktuirani intervjui sa zaposlenima pomenutih institucija. 9 Zadatak analize bio je otkriti da li programi koje realizuju ove ustanove adekvatni za učenike srednjih škola i da li taj program utiče na razvoj njihovog interesovanja za pozorišnu umetnost. Istraživanje polazi od činjenice da veliki broj učenika srednjih škola u Srbiji veoma retko ili nikada ne posećuje pozorište i da je najčešći razlog tome nezainteresovanost (Mrđa, 2011a).…”

‘Our Grandmother Used to Sing Whilst Weeding’: Oral histories, millet food culture, and farming rituals among women smallholders in Ramanagara district, Karnataka

“…While this emerging trend back towards history has tended to come from within the field of development studies, the most convincing advocates of cultural approaches have generally been located in other disciplines. The sociologist John Clammer has recently argued that culture, and the expression and development of its ‘concrete manifestations’ in what people actually do, constitute in a very real sense ‘development’ as they create spaces of meaning, enjoyment, and creativity that reveal a social group's most cherished values (Clammer 2018). He further points out that, with very few exceptions, discussion of these concrete manifestations tends not to feature in the existing development literature, even in writings avowedly concerned with development and culture (Clammer 2015, 6).…”