REPORT OF THE 4TH UCLG WORLD CONGRESS
Parallel Session
Culture in sustainable development The session focused on the role of ‘culture in sustainable development’. The discussion focussed on culture as a driver and as an enabler of sustainability. Culture is creativity, heritage, diversity and critical knowledge. The panel discussed culture as a dynamic concept. The panel affirmed that if sustainable development has to be more than empty words, then citizens should be empowered by policies. The panel affirmed that solid cultural policies provide the best tools to allow citizens to widen their freedoms. Evidence strongly suggests that well-being is directly correlated with participation and culture, and is not directly correlated with economic growth. The panel conceived cities as the key interface between local identity and globalization. The key questions that were raised were UCLG’s vision on culture and sustainable development, illustrated with specific examples of Lille Métropole, Angers, Taipei, Brazzaville and Saint-Louis in Senegal; UNESCO’s vision on Culture in the Post-2015 Development Agenda; and explanation of the Hangzhou declaration; and civil society (Charles Vallerand and Christine Merkel) comments on successfully operationalising the role of culture in sustainable development at a local and global level. President Cullen explained the key features of UCLG’s Committee on Culture: (a) intelligence and learning: exchanges on current and future cultural policies
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Organizer UCLG Culture Committee
speakers Catherine Cullen, Deputy Mayor of Lille, Culture Delegation, President of the Culture Committee (UCLG), France Phinit Chanthalangsy, Social and Human Sciences Programme, UNESCO Rabat Chien Joanna Lei, Member of the International Affairs Advisory Council, Taipei Christine Merkel, Head of the Division for Culture, Memory of the World, German Commission for UNESCO Benjamin-Alphonse Loukakou, Adviser and Communication Director, Brazzaville, Republic of Congo Marianne Prodhomme, Deputy Mayor, Angers, France, Vice-President of the UCLG Committee on Culture Ngoné Thioune, Deputy Mayor for Culture, Saint-Louis, Senegal Charles Vallerand, Director General, International Federation of Coalitions for Cultural Diversity (FICDC) Rapporteur: Jordi Pascual, Coordinator, UCLG Committee on Culture