Economic And Social Development (THE_5342); Information Technology (THE_13793); Innovation And Infrastructure (ICH_1387); Migration (THE_5771); References Illustrating Linkages Between SDGs And ICH (ICH_1440); Rural-urban Migration (ICH_1035); SDG 11: Sustainable Cities And Communities (ICH_1389); SDG 9: Industry; Social Media (THE_11828); Surge Of New Technologies (ICH_1306); Sustainable Development (THE_7357); Urban Development (ICH_1041);

Sustainability is increasingly becoming a key concept of international and local governance approaches and is transferred to the fields of cultural politics and cultural funding alike. However, what the ecological and economic inspired idea of sustainability means remains open in the context of culture. In face of the remaining conceptual ambiguities, it is left to the practical fields of cultural heritage work to spell out such an understanding and approach of sustainable development for the safeguarding of cultural heritage in Europe. These developments and their significance for European memory work, however, have hardly been reflected in scientific research yet. Starting from Brundtland’s understanding of sustainable development, this article will outline the UNESCO guiding principles of sustainability coining local and global strategies of sustainable development in cultural heritage work. It will proceed with examples of urban, intercultural, and digital cultural heritage, demonstrating that there are diverging ideas of how these cultural forms of expression and traditions may be sustained in practice, and reflect how social change may be included into strategies of safeguarding in Europe. Crucial conflict lines in these negotiations about sustainability are whether and how contemporary safeguarding approaches in cultural heritage work reflect the realities of individuals and groups within national heritage regimes in Europe. Regarding the diverging understandings of sustainability in these fields, questions arise to what extent are the modes of safeguarding at stake? How is what we have deemed as worthy for safeguarding so far rendered problematic through new forms of cultural transmission and production today?