Over the past 30 years, cultural and museum institutions have taken sustainability initiatives, relating in particular to environmental management, ecodesign and social responsibility. Since the beginning of the 2010s, the notion of socio-ecological transition has become established as a new frame of reference that is more process-oriented and less normative. It refers not to a stabilised goal but to gradual transformations that often entail conflict and are marked by tensions and experimentation. In an international context affirming culture’s role in the transition, academic research initially addressed these issues from an environmental standpoint before incorporating social, economic and political dimensions. More recently, emerging critical approaches – such as care theory, sensory and regenerative museology, and post-humanist perspectives – have shifted the attention to shared relationships and responsibilities. This special report explores the socio-ecological transition as a tool for understanding contemporary transformations of the cultural field. It questions the reconfigurations at work in professional practices, management models and mediation devices, while highlighting their structural limitations and resistances.
Michel-Fauré et al. (Thu,) studied this question.