Cultural Sustainability and Regional Development

"Sustainability is a complex notion that has rapidly turned into a keyword in politics and also academic research. This topical and important book pushes this debate further by introducing a novel idea of cultural sustainability and how it is related to the complicated processes of regional development. An experienced interdisciplinary group of authors examines this themes from a number of exciting perspectives. The book explores thoroughly, through the concept of territorialisation, how the natural environment and culture are constitutive to each other."–Anssi Paasi, Professor of Geography, University of Oulu, Finland

"Territorialisation becomes the focus of regional development in this path-breaking book. We are shown how this concept re-grounds development in place, in culture, in co-production with ‘nature’ within dynamic socio-technical assemblages. The approaches to territorialisation elaborated by the range of contributors shift attention away from the economism of mainstream regional development, giving value to the contingent but always present cultures of place. With empirical elaborations from all over the world we are given adequate illustration of the productivity of this line of thinking. The editors are to be congratulated for steering a well-trodden field in a direction that highlights new pathways towards sustainability."–J.K. Gibson-Graham, Institute for Culture and Society, Western Sydney University