Culture and Sustainable Development in the City

Sacha Kagan is a 'Privatdozent' (habilitated external lecturer) at the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences at Leuphana University Lüneburg (Germany), where he worked as research associate from 2005 to 2018. He was coordinator of Cultura21 International from 2007 to 2016, and a board member of the Research Network Sociology of the Arts at the European Sociological Association (ESA) from 2011 to 2019 (coordinator 2015-2017). In 2018, he received the Basarab Nicolescu Transdisciplinary Science and Engineering Award. He authored over 70 publications, directed 3 documentary films, and contributed in various roles to a dozen arts projects.

"This is a very welcome collection that focuses on the complex dimensions of the intersections of culture and sustainability in cities. Readers will find a rich section of case studies from three continents. In each case the authors explore not only what is, but what could be: creating a welcome space of policy and practice that generates dialogue, rather than closing it down. Moreover, in a novel methodological turn the international examples are brought into conversation with the German examples (on every other chapter) providing us with a further dimension of learning from the debate: avoiding the simplistic trap of ‘best practice’ approaches."Andy C. Pratt, Professor of Cultural Economy, Director of Centre for Culture and the Creative Industries, City University of London (UK), Editor-in-Chief of City Culture and Society"This book unscrambles helpfully some of the most slippery terms in the urban lexicon – culture and sustainable development – and their role in creating ethical, energetic and participative cities. By focusing on ‘possibilities’ it reminds us that it is better to take a glass half full approach and to see opportunities in the crisis. This is where its practical examples reveal and highlight how it is possible for cities to move towards a desirable Planet B even though we need to get Planet A right too."Charles Landry, Urban Theorist, Founder of Comedia (UK), Author of The Creative City (2000), Creator of the ‘Creative City Index’"Sustainable urbanization for a peak world population of 10 billion people is a huge planning, construction, and infrastructure challenge. Kagan's cultural approach to design of urban spaces adds a vital humanistic dimension to the debate that was previously dominated by architecture, engineering, city planning and construction experts. The book’s insight of cities as spaces of cultural possibilities can lead to regenerative sustainable and resilient urban spaces. Must read for anyone interested in urbanization processes."Professor Paul Shrivastava, Chief Sustainability Officer and Director of the Sustainability Institute at The Pennsylvania State University (USA), Full Member of the Club of Rome, former Executive Director of Future Earth"Against a global backdrop of uncertainty and instability caused by various worldwide crises, Culture and Sustainable Development in the City comes as a timely reminder that the sustainable development of our cities in this unpredictable future will be essential. The editor and contributors in this volume show us how working together with active civil societies can provide a crucial pulse and critical voice of the city’s inhabitants; and self-sustainable, diversified and inclusive urban development can be achieved."William S.W. Lim, Architect, Urban Theorist (Singapore), Co-Founding Chairman of Asian Urban Lab, President of the Architectural Association of Asia (AA Asia) "This book is a welcome invitation to explore the possibilities and potential for generating creative, inclusive, and sustainable urban places where all life can thrive. The chapters reveal why a cultural approach to urban sustainable development is both promising and essential, and why the quality of our engagement with culture matters."Professor Karen O’Brien, University of Oslo (Norway), participant in IPCC Fourth and Fifth Assessment Reports, author of You Matter More Than You Think: Quantum Social Change for a Thriving World"Sacha Kagan has woven together a compelling and powerful book offering insightful perspectives, practices, analyses, and strategies on how cultural spaces and cultural practices can propel transversal innovations for sustainable urban development. The book demonstrates how enabling "urban spaces of possibilities" can advance the emergence of transformative experiments in everyday lives, collective actions that can co-create future trajectories. This is an important contribution to the development of culturally sensitive urban policy that supports both the institutional infrastructures and the innovations necessary to address the multiple crises we now face. The book offers a timely impulse to (re)envisioning the whole city as a space of possibilities – an essential footing to collectively moving forward."Dr. Nancy Duxbury, Senior Researcher and Coordinator of the "Urban Cultures, Sociabilities, and Participation" transdisciplinary line at the Centre of Social Studies, University of Coimbra (Portugal)"Since the outbreak of the Covid19 epidemic, residents of many cities have found solace in the vibrant city, its arts, its creative culture, in moments of political expression of frustration and protest, and in what the authors of this book call "urban spaces of possibilities" and "pivotal places for transformation." If you want to better understand what and why we have seen and felt in recent years, this book, for the eight cities from three continents it presents, and in its current, empathetic but also critical writing, is the book for you."Professor Avner de Shalit, Max Kampelman Professor of Democracy and Human Rights, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem (Israel)

• Introduction: Culture and Sustainable Development in the City – Urban Spaces of Possibilities Sacha Kagan, with Antoniya Hauerwaas, Verena Holz and Patricia Wedler 1. Imagination and Imaginaries of Sustainability in Cultural and Artistic Practices Sacha Kagan 2. Neralu, Bangalore/Bengaluru’s Tree Festival: Creative Engagement with Narratives on Bengaluru City Deepak Srinivasan 3. Entrepreneurship in Conventions, Place-Making and Spaces of Creativity Sacha Kagan 4. Chicago’s Embedded Artist as Double Agent: An Interview with Frances Whitehead Frances Whitehead and Sacha Kagan 5. Spaces for Challenging Experiences, Indeterminacy, and Experimentation Sacha Kagan 6. Farewell to the White Space?: Overcoming Racism in Baltimore's Artistic Fields Volker Kirchberg 7. PlanBude: A New Participative Instrument for Cooperative Urban Planning Patricia Wedler and Renée Tribble 8. Places of Hope: Approaches to Building a New City Oleksandra Nenko 9. Practices and Policies from Spaces of Possibilities to Institutional Innovations Sacha Kagan, Antoniya Hauerwaas, Verena Holz and Patricia Wedler 10. Why is There So Much Space Given to Cars in the City?: Creative Practices and Possibilities in Singapore Andrew Lee 11. Networks in Sustainable Urban Development - An Empirical Study Volker Kirchberg 12. Culturing Community: Nurturing Urban Biocultural Diversity in the Wild West Beth Carruthers Conclusion: The City as Space of Possibilities Sacha Kagan and Volker Kirchberg