Introduction

Abstract

AbstractHumanity is facing a sustainability crisis, and culture is complicit. The crisis has emerged because of the enactment of ideologies of over-consumption, capitalism and colonialism. Culture can also constrain transformational change because of the tenacity of deeply embedded patterns of beliefs, practices and material expectations. At the same time, culture can be a powerful force in sustainability transitions. For all these reasons, culture deserves to be better understood. Yet it is an elusive concept, used simplistically among lay people, and claimed and used in divergent ways in different disciplines and schools of thought.Culture and Sustainabilityinvestigates culture through a sustainability lens and sustainability through a cultural lens. It clarifies the various ways in which culture is understood, and introduces an accessible framework for the analysis of culture and its relationship with sustainability outcomes.