1. Fostering a Culture of Sustainability: Introducing the case for cultural indicators Douglas Worts and Lynne Teather CSIN Conference, Toronto March 3, 2010

2. Objectives of the Workshop 1.that each participant thinks about the role that culture plays in defining their life 2.to identify ways that our society’s unsustainability is rooted in cultural values and behaviours 3. identify ways to create and use cultural indicators that can help shift how individuals and societal systems operate

3. What are your expectations for the workshop?

4. Agenda A. Introductory Exercise B. Discussions of Culture and Intersections with Sustainability C.Cultural Assessment Indicators Exercise

5. Who are you… culturally? 1.Spend a couple of minutes and write down 2 short descriptors (1-3 words) that would provide a sense of how your culture is expressed in your life. 2. Pair up with someone you don’t know. Each introduce yourself - name and the two descriptors you have chosen for yourself 3. Share one descriptor to share in large group A. Introductory Exercise

6. What can be made of these cards? A. Introductory Exercise

7. How do these attributes relate to our sustainability / unsustainability? A. Introductory Exercise

8. Section B: Culture and its Intersections with Sustainability

9. 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 In, Mastering Civic Engagement B. Culture and Sustainability

10. Another Definition of Culture …. all of the ways in which a people relate to those aspects of life which: a) they can know and control; as well as, b) those they can’t fully know or control, but to which they must have a conscious relationship. Worts, 2001 B. Culture and Sustainability

11. Culture is: Standing on the shoulders of ancestors B. Culture and Sustainability

12. Culture is Relationships Family Community Society Global humanity Environment Self The Unknown <--Past Future--> Museums & Cultural Organizations Forces of Change Pressures B. Culture and Sustainability

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

14. Sustainability Model Economy Society Environment Sustainability Culture Values, traditions, behaviours, relationship B. Culture and Sustainability

15. What are Some Attributes of Culture –Reflection (individual and collective) –Participation/engagement in what is relevant –Relatedness - connection to others/environment –Awareness of history - learn from the past –Creativity - & have faith in it personally –Conscious systems of knowledge - including values –Connection to the symbolic & the spiritual –Connection to what cannot be controlled –Responsible action –Capacity to embrace change –Attendance at cultural facilities…? B. Culture and Sustainability

16. Adaptive Renewal Cycle Holling (2004) www.ecologyandsociety.org/vol9/iss1/art11 B. Culture and Sustainability

17. Complex Forest Ecosystem B. Culture and Sustainability

18. Australian Bushfire, 2009 Insurance companies had claims of $22 billion this year B. Culture and Sustainability

19. Even more complexity… Panarchy B. Culture and Sustainability “Sustainability is the capacity to create, test and maintain adaptive capability”. Development is the process of creating, testing and maintaining opportunity

20. Adaptation in a cultural context… - changes in personal relationships - changes in career - moving from country to city (or vice-versa) Personal Level: Collective Level: - development of new technologies - monocultures => pluralism - urbanization Change can be either adaptive or maladaptive Institutional Level: - re-examine first principles B. Culture and Sustainability

21. The Challenge of Feedback Loops Indicating a ‘Culture of Sustainability’ Examples => making the invisible, visible B. Culture and Sustainability

22. World Population B. Culture and Sustainability

23. Convenience of Cell Phones B. Culture and Sustainability

24. What is this? Courtesy: Chris Jordan B. Culture and Sustainability

25. What is this - 2? Courtesy: Chris Jordan B. Culture and Sustainability

26. Discarded Cell Phones Photo by Chris Jordan 426,000 cell phones, equal to the number of cell phones retired in the US every day B. Culture and Sustainability

27. Ed Burtynsky - Ship Breaking, Bangladesh B. Culture and Sustainability

28. Keeping Places-Australia Armidale Aboriginal Cultural Centre and Keeping place B. Culture and Sustainability

29. Exhibitions with Civic Engagement B. Culture and Sustainability

30. “Without Sanctuary”

31. Alberta, Canada: Economic Wellbeing Economy oikos (household) nomia (management) Mark Anielsk B. Culture and Sustainability

32. C) Cultural Assessment Indicators Exercise Divide into 3 groups Each group is given a topic to develop a public engagement initiative on a sustainability topic Each group will brainstorm 2 or 3 ideas Each group will assess the ideas using a series of questions, provided - from the Critical Assessment Framework - and report back on one ‘best’ idea

33. Exercise - Report Back

34. Comments about the workshop?

35. Many thanks! Lynne Teather, Professor, Museum Studies Program University of Toronto lynne.teather@gmail.com Douglas Worts, WorldViews Consulting, Douglas_worts@rogers.com www.douglasworts.org