Cultural policy actions towards urban sustainability: Research and practice collaborations

There has been increasing recognition by governments that culture matters and plays an important role in sustainable urban development (Abu Dhabi Declared Actions, 2020; Hawkes, 2001; UCLG, 2010; UN, 2015; WUF10, 2019). Despite this, defining the terms and conditions for how culture comes to be understood, described, and operationalised remains a significant hurdle, especially beyond mandated state authorities and institutions dedicated to arts, culture, and heritage (Du Plessis & Rautenbach, 2010; Duxbury et al., 2012). A key challenge in defining the place of culture in, for, and across policy design and implementation toward sustainable and just urban development is the ability of policy and large state infrastructures to be flexible and malleable enough to respond to what the concept itself might raise. Furthermore, crucial to realising culture's potential is a need for the interrogation of whose culture, cultural forms, and voices are represented (Yúdice, 2009). Altogether, further exploration is needed to understand how culture appears in policy in local, regional, and national agendas, and how these ideas are operationalised and administered (Sitas, 2020).