Cultural sustainability of the arts through cross cultural market segmentation

The cultural characteristics attributed to individuals in their country of birth are likely to change through immigration and acculturation processes taking place in the host country. Immigrants are likely to develop their own unique cultural styles through a blending of their old culture and the host culture. With slightly less than half of the population born overseas or with at least one parent born overseas, and with some 200 languages Australia has one of the most cosmopolitan populations in the world, with a relatively small population of 20 million. This paper considers the cross cultural nature of the Australian population and the sustainability of culture through the Arts. This paper also considers the marketing of the arts from a cross cultural segmentation perspective. In so doing the paper identifies segmentation issues associated with cross cultural segmentation.

Architecture, multiculturalism and cultural sustainability in Australian cities

The way that the built environment represents and accommodates people of different cultures is an important facet of developing a holistically sustainable future. Architecture intervenes, maps and signifies and in doing so it constructs identities. It helps to shape how we know the world by mediating power, social relations and cultural values. Events such as the settlement, inhabitation and establishment of diasporic communities involve the occupation of space. Architecture provides the armature of this space, its form and its image. Building is a potent means by which identity can be formed. A most significant part of people’s well-being and capacity is their participation in literally building communities. This paper will illustrate this issue through discussion of contemporary Australian cities. The buildings of a wide variety of immigrants to Australia have since the 1950s contributed greatly to the changing nature of its cities. They are the physical manifestation of the great demographic changes that have occurred across the nation during this period. The combination of people of different backgrounds and cultures lends a unique quality to Australian built environments, and this needs not only be understood but celebrated, as they are contributing to the development of Australian urban culture. Increased knowledge and understanding of the impact of immigration and multiculturalism on our built environment will add substantially to understanding of the diversity of Australia’s cultural heritage, and the potential of future planners, architects, and members of the general public to create inclusive and dynamic Australian cities.

Professional artists in Vietnam : intellectual property rights, economic and cultural sustainability

The article outlines the legal context for Vietnamese artists that is not discussed in other literature, including the scarcity of data on the art market, the reasons for failure to enforce intellectual property (IP) rights and legal contracts, and the rapid growth of private-sector art dealing that makes an examination of the legal context so essential. The author's field research in Vietnam since 2003 is linked to analyses of Vietnam's art market and to civil codes and other international agreements that determine professional artists’ IP rights. This illustrates the reasons why IP rights have not been enforced or arbitrated in Vietnam. The author includes a discussion of the importance of enforcing IP law for the maintenance of artists’ incomes and careers, the development of a national art market, and for innovation and cultural sustainability in Vietnam.

Defining cultural sustainability in multicultural built environments

The Australian built environment is an arena where multicultural identity and difference are tangibly negotiated. What occurs on a daily basis in its cities is a complex series of negotiations between multiple communities, all of whom adapt their own cultures, as well as adopting elements from their surrounding environment. This paper investigates these issues by comparing the physical development within a contemporary Australian city with the social and cultural changes that have taken place in it. It asks the question. Whose culture should be sustained in this context, and on what basis? To what extent should the urban environment be reflecting of the changes, as much as the origins, of a relatively young settler society (notwithstanding the fact that its original inhabitants have a history that predates this settlement by thousands of years). More broadly, what constitutes cultural sustainability in a multicultural society, and how is, might, or should this be reflected in its built environment?

Architecture, identity and cultural sustainability in contemporary Southeast Asian cities

Distinctive architecture, which once served to identify peoples and places, has now, across the world, been subject to the standardising forces of history. Built environments still reflect the conceptual, spatial and physical construction of communities, though straightforward correlations between particular forms of architecture, places and people can no longer be taken for granted. This article explores these notions through discussion of several Southeast Asian examples, seeing how the relationship between architecture and culture might be framed by each of them, and then how definitions of culture might be differently expressed depending on each context. The first context is the village. Here, recent buildings are produced within a traditional, rural culture, generally without recourse to architects. Indigenous symbolism is overlaid, but not necessarily subsumed, by imported typologies and ideologies. The second context is urban and more formalised and involves self-conscious architectural attempts to straddle tradition and modernity, as well as notions of broader collective identity. The third context is one of a more diffused globalisation. Issues of conservation and heritage are complicated by the imperial or colonial histories of many urban environments, as well as by the pressures of economic development and population growth. In cultural terms, however, it is the life of cities that is foregrounded here. This disparate collection of architectural projects and agendas reflects a region where the forces of essentialism and fragmentation continue to be in creative tension (Ashraf 2005).

Migrancy, modernity and cultural sustainability

Australian Home Beautiful’s October 1960 Edition was devoted to the modernisation of the Victorian and Edwardian-era houses of Australian cities’ inner suburbs. One of the articles inside was entitled ‘Terrace Houses are Common Problem’, in which the magazine’s architectural consultant Leonard A. Bullen suggested; “With houses of this type, the multiplicity of embellishments that appear in almost every possible place is irritating to eyes that have become accustomed to the cleaner and less ornamented lines of modern houses” and “The first necessity is to get rid of the superfluous decoration and emphasise horizontal features.” (Bullen 1960, 31). The post-World War Two period was a time when Australia’s traditional imagining of itself was confronted by both popular modernity and a diversity of new migrant cultures and ways of thinking. In a contemporary environment that theoretically celebrates diversity and creates audiences for increasingly multiplying expressions of culture and history, perhaps it is time that 1950s and ‘60s alterations to old houses were re-imagined as intrinsic elements in Australia’s cultural landscape. This supposition will be discussed in relation to the United Nations’ 2002 Kanazawa Resolutions’ definition of the relationship between culture and sustainability as ‘dialogical coexistence’ (Nadarajah and Yamamoto 2007).

Valuing arts & culture in the community

Despite the hype surrounding the mobilisation of the creative arts as a vehicle for social and physical regeneration, there are few systematic assessments of the success or otherwise of this agenda. This paper will present a framework for assessing the social, economic and cultural sustainability of a changing arts agenda in the regional city of Geelong, Australia. It will draw on general principles and local revaluations of the arts to present a historical account of why and how the value of the arts in this one community changed over time to produce a sustainable outcome.

Cross cultural exchange to support reasoning about socio-scientific sustainability issues

In this article, we describe a project on reasoning about socio-scientific issues (SSIs), involving French and Australian pre-service science teachers engaged in on-line discussion and development of a wiki. In the research, we developed frameworks for looking at the quality of reasoning about 'socially acute' sustainability questions. We found the level of reasoning was enhanced by the cross-cultural exchange, and identified the importance of context in framing reasoning quality. We argue that science teachers could effectively adapt this approach to develop students' scientific literacy and embed the 'science as a human endeavour' strand of the Australian Curriculum in their practice.

World Heritage Cultural Landscapes: conservation and sustainability challenges

From 1 to 10 September 2016, thousands of leaders and decision-makers from government, civil society, indigenous peoples, business and academia will gather together in Honolulu (Hawaii) to share ideas on how to improve the ways we manage the natural environment for human, social and economic development. Held every four years, the IUCN World Conservation Congress (WCC) focuses on joint progress in ways to protect biodiversity, a crucial factor in addressing some of our greatest challenges today, such as tackling climate change and achieving food security.

The importance of overcoming cultural barriers in establishing brand names: an Australian company in China

Considering the importance of cross-cultural competencies in the context of rapid globalisation and the growth of China in the world economy, this paper uses case study methodology, to document the difficulties encountered by an Australian multinational beverage company, Foster’s, in attempting to establish its brand in China’s rapidly expanding market economy. Many of these related to culturally distinct attributes of the market, the consumer base and retail practices. The paper analyses these in terms of key concepts in marketing and cross-cultural business theory, in order to provide guidelines on how to overcome cultural barriers when establishing a foreign brand name in China. It also discusses the impact of cultural differences on brand loyalty after the establishment of the brand and on the sustainability of that brand. In attempting to assist foreign firms to succeed in the Chinese market, this paper offers suggestions that will help marketers to first understand the importance of cultural differences and then to succeed with further recommendations. Being a complex market and a market that is different from the Australian market, this is extremely valuable for those foreign brands entering China.

Unraveling cultural value

Geursen and Rentschler discuss value and its application to culture, and explore the drivers of cultural value and how they interrelate to maximize revenues and sustainability for arts. They argue that cultural value can be structured to reflect the interest of individual stakeholder groups to achieve creative missions. They propose to managers to maximize revenues, be aware of their mission, carefully consider how to balance the different opportunities entrepreneurially, and be conscious of individual opportunities to develop better outcome for cultural organizations.

A sustainable practice: rethinking nature in cultural research

I start this paper with a question that is also a provocation: how sustainable is a cultural studies that does not take account of nature? What I propose is that before we speculate on how this field can engage with the  environmental concerns that face us this question must first be asked. For what cultural studies can offer in the face of ecological stress, I will argue, is circumscribed by its own traditions. If the logics or conceptual parameters of the discipline resist an accommodation of the conditions of sustainability then we have little to offer. Yet if this is the case, what is the future of cultural studies given not only the current import of environmental issues but also the challenge that these material circumstances raise to our dominant traditions of research? Through a discussion of the limits of social constructivism and the prevalence of deconstructive critique in cultural studies, this paper thinks through what an alternative practice might be. It looks to the theoretical and practical application of assemblage, or gathering, as a generative tool for cultural research, and speculates that what we need at this time is a double agenda: to make our own discipline sustainable as we mobilize the  particular capacities, methods and knowledges of cultural research in  response to ecological distress.