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UNESCO Culture: urban future; global report on culture for sustainable urban development
Culture: Urban Future; Global Report on Culture for Sustainable Urban Development / ed. F. Bandarin. Paris: UNESCO, 2016. 303 p. ISBN 978-92-3-100170-3.
The UNESCO Global Report represents the first comprehensive international study of culture's role in sustainable urban development, prepared for the UN Habitat III Conference and in the context of implementing Sustainable Development Goal 11. The report is based on large-scale global research conducted jointly with nine regional partners covering eight world regions, analyzing culture as a strategic resource for creating inclusive, creative, and sustainable cities.
The study demonstrates that in an era of unprecedented urbanization, when approximately 70% of the world's population will live in cities by 2050, culture is a key factor in poverty reduction, enhancing urban resilience, managing cultural diversity, and creating quality urban environments. The report substantiates the need to shift from the traditional monumental approach to heritage toward a holistic concept of historic urban landscape that integrates tangible and intangible heritage within the dynamic context of urban development.
Structurally, the report consists of two parts and a series of thematic dossiers. Part I presents the results of a global survey across eight world regions (sub-Saharan Africa, Arab States, Europe, CIS, South Asia, Asia-Pacific, North America, Latin America and the Caribbean), featuring over 100 case studies illustrating regional specificity in the relationship between culture and sustainable urban development. Part II provides thematic analysis across three directions: culture for people-centered cities (social inclusion, tolerance, creativity); culture for quality urban environment (compact cities, resilience, public spaces, identity); and culture in urban policy (local development, urban governance, financing).
The report introduces twelve key policy areas for sustainable urban development through culture, including enhancing quality of life and safeguarding city identities, ensuring social inclusion, promoting creativity and innovation, strengthening urban resilience, regenerating cities through integrating culture into planning, developing innovative financing models for culture, and enhancing the role of communities in local governance. The publication is complemented by special sections on UNESCO networks for sustainable urban development (World Heritage, Creative Cities Network, Coalition of Inclusive Cities, education and biosphere reserve programmes) and an atlas with cartographic materials.
The report is positioned as a framework document for implementing the 2030 Agenda and the New Urban Agenda, emphasizing that sustainable urban development is impossible without culture, and that the future of cities will be determined by their ability to integrate culture into social, economic, and environmental development strategies.
