"Culture and Sustainability in European Cities. Imagining Europolis", edited by Svetlana Hristova, Milena Dragićević Šešić, and Nancy Duxbury

Routledge has published the book Culture and Sustainability in European Cities: Imagining Europolis edited by Svetlana Hristova, Milena Dragićević Šešić ‎and Nancy Duxbury, as part of the new book series Routledge Studies in Culture and Sustainable Development. This series was initiated by the COST Action IS1007 Investigating Cultural Sustainability and is edited by the Action Chairs Katriina Soini and Joost Dessein.

Culture as an aspect of sustainability is a relatively new phenomenon but is beginning to attract attention among scholars and policy makers. This series opens up a forum for debate about the role of culture in sustainable development, treating culture and sustainability as a meta-narrative that will bring together diverse disciplines. Key questions explored in this series include: how should culture be applied in sustainability policies; what should be sustained in culture; what should culture sustain; and what is the relationship of culture to other dimensions of sustainability?

Books in the series have a variety of geographical foci and reflect different disciplinary approaches (for example geography, sociology, sustainability science, environmental and political sciences, anthropology, history, archaeology and planning). The series is addressed in particular to postgraduate students and researchers from a wide cross-section of disciplines.

Culture and Sustainability in European Cities. Imagining Europolis
Edited by Svetlana Hristova, Milena Dragićević Šešić, Nancy Duxbury
Routledge – 2015 – 246 pages
Series: Routledge Studies in Culture and Sustainable Development

European cities are contributing to the development of a more sustainable urban system that is capable of coping with economic crises, ecological challenges and social disparities in different nation-states and regions throughout Europe.

This book reveals in a pluralistic way how European cities are generating new approaches to their sustainable development, and the special contribution of culture to these processes. It addresses both a deficit of attention to small and medium-sized cities in the framework of European sustainable development, and an underestimation of the role of culture, artistic expression and creativity for integrated development of the city as a prerequisite to urban sustainability. On the basis of a broad collection of case studies throughout Europe, representing a variety of regionally specific cultural models of sustainable development, the book investigates how participative culture, community arts, and more generally, creativity of civic imagination are conducive to the goal of a sustainable future of small and medium-sized cities.

This is an essential volume for researchers and postgraduate students in urban studies, cultural studies, cultural geography and urban sociology as well as for policymakers and practitioners wanting to understand the specificity of European cities as hubs of innovation, creativity and artistic industriousness.

For more information:
http://www.culturalsustainability.eu/news/agreement-with-routledge-on-book-series
http://www.routledgementalhealth.com/books/series/RSCSD/