CULTURAL ORGANIZATIONS AND SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT: A MULTIDIMENSIONAL ANALYSIS IN CARIRI, CEARÁ
Cultural Organizations; Organizational Sustainability; Sustainable Development; Cariri Cearense.
Climate change, biodiversity loss, food insecurity, and energy scarcity are already impacting societies around the world and are likely to worsen as critical thresholds are approached. This scenario highlights the urgent need for a transition to sustainable development models capable of keeping humanity within safe planetary boundaries. The transition to sustainability requires profound changes in production and consumption patterns that span science and technology, law, economics, politics, and, equally, the cultural sphere. In this sense, cultural organizations play a decisive role in sustainable development by articulating symbolic, social, and economic capital on a local scale. Cultural organizations encompass a broad and heterogeneous spectrum of entities, characterized by their involvement in the creation, production, and dissemination of symbolic, artistic, and cultural products, services, or experiences. Such institutions stimulate low-impact creative chains and promote responsible cultural consumption patterns, becoming learning spaces for sustainable practices. These organizations are important not only for promoting the production of and access to culture, but also for playing a social role, contributing to practices of sociability, and an economic role, mobilizing the cultural production chain and interacting with other economic dimensions, such as tourism and commerce. Despite the growing international relevance attributed to the role of cultural institutions in sustainable development, conceptual and methodological limitations still prevail regarding the integrated measurement of their sustainable practices, especially in specific regional contexts such as Cariri. This dissertation project aims to analyze the sustainability of cultural organizations through a multidimensional approach, contemplating economic, social, cultural, and environmental dimensions in an integrated manner. The work will be developed in a multipaper format, consisting of three interrelated scientific studies, each focused on the analysis of a specific aspect of the overall research objective. In this way, each study will contribute in an articulated manner to the construction of a cohesive research network, ensuring the complementarity and integration of the results. Article I aims to: Map and analyze the practices and strategies reported in the scientific literature that promote the sustainability of cultural organizations. Specifically, it seeks to: (i) identify the concepts of sustainability applied to the cultural field; (ii) catalog sustainability practices employed by cultural organizations; (ii) propose a research agenda based on the recommendations for future studies from the articles analyzed. Article II aims to: Analyze the sustainability of cultural organizations in Cariri, Ceará: (i) Define and describe the dimensions and parameters of sustainability relevant to the analysis of Cultural Organizations; (ii) Map sustainable practices applied by cultural organizations in Cariri; (iii) Identify potential drivers and barriers to the advancement of sustainability in the organizations studied. Finally, Article III aims to: Develop a set of sustainability indicators for cultural organizations. (i) Integrate the results of the first two articles; (ii) Analyze sustainability metrics from consolidated benchmarks; (iii) Prepare the technical data sheet for each indicator. The expected results include the construction of a conceptual and practical framework on organizational sustainability adapted to the regional reality of Cariri, promoting effective strategies for governance and cultural management. It is also expected to contribute to broadening the understanding of sustainable practices in peripheral contexts, strengthening the strategic role of local cultural organizations in implementing the 2030 Agenda and promoting socio-environmental justice.