Cultural Sustainability Transformation: The Transformative Role of Heritage Futures

Planetary boundaries describe the ecological limits for life on the Earth from the perspective of natural sciences. Based on this knowledge, we are currently living in an ecological crisis. As a political action towards a more sustainable world, we aim to control human behaviour, for example, by the United Nation’s Sustainable Development Goals. In this chapter, culture is seen as an interactive part of nature. Anticipatory communication and actions of human beings are not separate from the communication of other species or inorganic nature. The focus of this chapter is on the conscious cultural transformation, regarded as necessary to tackle the ecological crisis. The aim is to develop a new conceptual model of Heritage Futures, which combines (1) the transformative power of culture defined as a dynamic, interactive process of anthroposemiosis (the process of culture) as a part of semiosis (the process of nature), (2) anticipatory understanding of humans and other (living) beings, and (3) cultural heritage as a tool to engage people in an inspiring, affectual, cognitive and practical way. The new model of Heritage Futures is an intentional, anticipatory, cultural tool to co-create alternative images for sustainable futures and accordingly policy actions in culture and society.