Culture and Public Administration in times of global challenges: An agenda for transformation and the achievement of ambitious goals?

Abstract

The 2030 Sustainable Development Agenda is a relatively new plan of action for people, the planet and prosperity in a period of complex global challenges. This universal agenda introduces specific goals and targets allowing for the first place an eff ective follow-up and permanent and constant political assessment of global scope in order to shift the world onto a sustainable and resilient place. It aims at transforming our world with an exhaustive approach but still it suffi ces a scarce reference to cultural issues. Despite of this scant reference to culture there exists a wide-ranging recognition of culture as a transversal means for innovation and change at the service of the global agenda and at institutional level engaging citizens and the whole civil society, industry, higher education institutions, local governments and all sort of stakeholders. Culture in all its dimension has theoretically reached recognition of its crucial role for an integral ecological transformation of our societies despite of an urgent need for social legitimacy. Such social legitimacy should come in the first place from institutional bodies and public administration in order to defi ne and support public policies to boost the growing potential of culture at the service of citizens and the an ambitious Agenda 2030.