1. Fostering a Culture of Sustainability Douglas Worts and Glenn Sutter WorldViews Consulting October, 2007 Presented To: Saskatchewan Regional Centre of Expertise UN Decade of Education for Sustainable Development

2. Workshop Outline - identify pressing issues - clarify the role of culture in our lives - discuss how our culture adapts - identify our current cultural needs - choosing pathways to our future - assessing if we are on a sustainable path

3. What are the most pressing issues we face globally?

4. What are the most pressing issues we face locally?

5. What are the most pressing issues that you are facing personally?

6. Sustainability, (and unsustainability) is a cultural matter Our values Our behaviours Our attitudes Our priorities Our systems Rooted in:

7. But what do we mean by ‘culture’?

8. Culture “a basic pattern of assumptions invented, discovered or developed by a given group as it learns to cope with its problems of external adaptation and internal integration” Edgar Shein

9. A Definition of Culture ….the sum total of all values, collective memory, history, beliefs, mythology, rituals, symbolic objects and built heritage which reflect the manner in which a people relate to both those aspects of life which: a) they can know and control; as well as, b) those they cannot fully understand or control, but to which they need to have a conscious relationship.

10. Culture is Relationships Family Community Society Global humanity Environment Self The Unknown <--Past Future-->

11. How is our culture lived and perpetuated?: - Individually & - Collectively Consciously & Unconsciously

12. Sustainability and Adaptation - changes in personal relationships - changes in career - moving from country to city (or vice-versa) Personal Level, e.g: Collective Level, e.g: - migration => monocultures become pluralistic => urbanization

13. Organization Experiments, Creativity & Surprises

14. Exploitation Stronger Connections & Increasing Potential for Change

15. Conservation High Levels of Complexity Rigidity, & Resilience

16. Release A Rapid Collapse

17. The Adaptive Renewal Cycle Holling (2004)

18. Two Traps Holling (2004) The Rigidity Trap The Poverty Trap

19. Sustainability Maintaining the capacity for adaptation. Partly due to resilience, a property that varies through the adaptive renewal cycle. “…the amount of disturbance that can be sustained before a change in system control and structure occurs.”

20. Cross-scale Interactions Cycles of Different Sizes form a “Panarchy”

21. How does culture respond and contribute to adaptive renewal cycles?

22. Cultural Needs of Civil Society Personal: Empowerment Empathy and Sympathy Connection to place, people, the past, the future Safety Personal meaning Spiritual connection Creativity Stewardship Consciousness of relationships to people and nature etc. Describe how you have experienced these needs (or others) in adapting to global, local and personal issues. Collective: Rights Responsibilities Justice (social, economic) Stewardship Participatory democracy etc.

23. How do we want to live? Preferred Probable How will we get to Preferred Future?

24. Feedback You can’t live without it!

25. Probable vs. Preferred Future Community Institutional Personal Culture of Sustainability

26. Critical Assessment Framework Criteria for assessing initiatives aimed at 3 levels of cultural adaptation: Individual Community Global Working Group on Museums and Sustainable Communities

27. Individual Level Encourages personal reflection Captures imagination, stimulates curiosity Affirms, challenges, deepens identity Enhances ability to think critically & creatively Provides opportunity to examine & clarify values Helps deal with complexity and uncertainty Increases responsible action Working Group on Museums and Sustainable Communities

28. Community Level Addresses vital & relevant needs/issues Engages a diverse public Encourages social interactions and debate Links existing community groups to one another Working Group on Museums and Sustainable Communities

29. Global Level Working Group on Museums and Sustainable Communities consciousness of global impacts of local choices foster global ecosystem health reduce global ecological footprint enhance global social justice and equity

30. Getting the right indicators

31. “Development divorced from its human or cultural context is growth without a soul.” ‘Our Creative Diversity’, UNESCO, 1995

32. Where is our culture headed?

33. Contacts Glenn Sutter Regina, SK Douglas Worts Toronto, ON www.geocities.com/dcworts