What is the cultural dimension of sustainability? This book offers a thought-provoking answer, with a theoretical synthesis on "cultures of sustainability". Describing how modernity degenerated into a culture of unsustainability, to which the arts are contributing, Sacha Kagan engages us in a fundamental rethinking of our ways of knowing and seeing the world. We must learn not to be afraid of complexity, and to re-awaken a sensibility to patterns that connect. With an overview of ecological art over the past 40 years, and a discussion of art and social change, the book assesses the potential role of art in a much needed transformation process.
Sacha Kagan is research associate at Leuphana University Lueneburg and founding coordinator of the international network Cultura21. He works in the trans-disciplinary field of arts and (un-)sustainability.
Reviewed in: International Journal of Cultural Policy, 1-3 (2012), George Kaye The Goose, 11 (2012), Anne Milne Laboratorium, 5/2 (2013)