The Negotiated Cultural Environment

Abstract

The Master’s Programme in Cultural Environment Studies (KUOMA), at the University of Jyväskylä’s Department of Music, Art, Culture Studies, is an educational innovation founded upon ‘cultural environment’ as a concept and as a framework (as a concept of agency), as well as analysis of the current state of the field of cultural environments.

This article takes a look at some of the starting points and foundations for the research within the Master’s Programme in Cultural Environment Studies, as well as expounding teaching and research practices using two case examples. The Mätäsvaara project was created for developing multidisciplinary, interdisciplinary pedagogy for the university setting by making use of the possibilities of phenomena-based, practical, multi-discipline expertise learning. The project made concrete the breadth of expertise in cultural environments and the dynamic use of the concept of ‘cultural environment’ itself. The multidisciplinary metrics of sustainably growing tourism (MAMOMI) consortium project examine the junctures of cultural sustainability and cultural environments through case studies.

The most significant outcome of the article is a snapshot of cultural environments and sustainable development. A particular goal is to point out the meaning of cultural sustainability in the discourse relating to sustainable development. Thus conceptualized, the ‘cultural environment’ can be seen — like the broader concept of culture — as a flexible and multifaceted framework that allows for egalitarian interaction between different areas of administration, academic discourse, and various societal agents.