Page 96 - KATE_JOHNSTON_2017

UN. They also circulated within academia, as environmental concerns and the proposition of

sustainability began to find a place in the social sciences.

Within this same period Australian cultural analyst and cultural policy commentator,

John Hawkes, wrote The Fourth Pillar of Sustainability: Culture’s Essential Role in Public

Planning (2001). Hawkes proposed that culture be added to the existing three-pillar model of

sustainability and for culture to become a framework for all areas of public policy. This

paralleled wider changes in national social policy. For example, Peter Ninnes argues that the

1990s Ethnic Affairs Commission, which identified social justice, community harmony, and

economic and cultural opportunities as key policy priorities, was a significant part of the

genealogy of a cultural diversity discourse (2004, p. 264). Such a discourse even made its

41
way into the New South Wales science curriculum (Ninnes 2004, p. 264) . By the early

2000s a new space was made for the inclusion of culture as an essential component of

sustainability. The concept of cultural diversity as a means to addressing global problems

seems familiar these days. Cultural and multicultural policies are commonplace for nation-

states. However, cultural diversity is only the most recent ideal that underlies UNESCO’s

doctrine and global ambitions of peace (Stoczkowski 2009, p. 10). Previously the goal of

most UNESCO programs was to provide basic adult education, aimed at spreading modern,

rational knowledge in order to advance global progress (Stoczkowski 2009, p. 10). This is

now viewed by many as an imperialist project because it overrode other forms of knowing

(Stoczkowski 2009, p. 10). Over the turn of the century the theme of cultural diversity came

to the forefront as discussions about the place of culture in sustainable development

heightened. These discussions were organised through several global summits and were

funnelled into outcome reports and declarations, including the United Nations Millennium

Declaration, which called for a new ethic of conservation and environmental stewardship

(UNEP & UNESCO 2003); the World Public Meeting on Culture held in Porto Alegre in

84