Regenerative cultural policy: sustainable development, cultural relations, and social learning

Abstract

This article examines the role of cultural policy in addressing global challenges through a regenerative framework and critiques the absence of a dedicated Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) for culture, which has marginalised the cultural sector’s potential contribution to sustainable development. It focuses on cultural policies as an aspect of culture that can support a thriving conceptualisation of life within planetary boundaries, contributing to societal, environmental and economic wellbeing of humanity in a caring approach to the more-than-human world. It argues that the current global cultural policy ecosystem, which operates from local to international levels, must evolve to support sustainable and regenerative futures by adopting a more integrated, holistic, and accountable approach. It proposes that the co-creative and reflective values inherent in cultural relations and the dynamic practice of engaging in social learning offer meaningful ways with which to engage in regenerative and reflexive cultural policy design, implementation, and evaluation to lead transformational change.