Cultures of (Un)Sustainability: Ecovillages as Seedbeds for a Cultural Transition

This essay shows how sustainability can and should be understood in terms of a cultural perspective and why it is vital to do so. More than simply adding a cultural dimension to the three pillars of economy, society and the environment, this entails a deeper transition from a culture of unsustainability to a culture of sustainability. It is argued that such a cultural transformation requires in particular a transcendent shift from modern to holistic worldviews and ways of life. A distinction is made between culture as ways of life and worldviews in order to explicate how culture relates to sustainability. Particular focus lies on the holistic worldview, which is explained by means of contrasting it to the dominant worldview of modern culture. This perspective proposes a way for resolving the fundamental failures of modernity and for building the structures of a sustainable future. Finally, ecovillages are presented as models for a sustainable culture: for one, as demonstration sites for such ways of life that can offer a concrete alternative to the unsustainable culture of modernity, and secondly, as dissemination sites for a new culture that is based on a holistic worldview. I