The Research Group on Cultural Sustainability of the Department of International, Legal and Historical-Political Studies (Università degli Studi di Milano) is an innovation hub for research in the field of cultural sustainability, composed by an interdisciplinary team of scholars.
Cultural sustainability, defined as the necessity for a given system of preserving the fundamental conditions for the reproduction of cultural processes, demands by now a public recognition by the national, European and international institutions.
A lot could change if cultural rights were to be considered as equal to social or economical rights: cultural processes, once they are triggered, generate not only profit and competitiveness, but also inclusion and social cohesion, by developing a cultural identity, allowing dialogue between different cultural worlds, with consequences from a political and ethical point of view.
The Research Group studies the numerous issues connected to cultural sustainability - with regard, for example, to the so called "immaterial" cultural heritage, "cultural rights", the protection of cultural identity, the promotion of public spaces and of the territory - with a multidisciplinary approach that takes into account the legal, economic and political implications of the matter.