In the face of unprecedented environmental, economic, and social challenges, the relationship between culture and human/organizational behavioral changes stands as the cornerstone of the transition towards more sustainable futures. This Special Issue, part of the legacy of the 2024 ENCATC Congress, drives an anthropological approach in recognizing that culture and behaviors influence each other in shaping human action, and acknowledges the role that cultural management and policy may play in fostering a conscious transformation towards the common good. It welcomes contributions adopting an interdisciplinary and/or transdisciplinary approach in dealing with such topic, offering either new theoretical insights or real-world applications in addressing the different dimensions (social, ecological, economic) of sustainability according to a holistic view. Bringing together a global community of academics, cultural managers, policymakers, educators, and artists, this Special Issue aims to integrate diverse perspectives, to debate the main issues, and to set the research agenda for the future.

This Special Issue welcomes contributions that improve our understanding of sustainability and transformative practices within and beyond the cultural sector. Potential areas of interest may include, but are not limited to:
- Exploring notions, interpretations and drivers of sustainability, ecological transition and wider cultural shifts towards regenerative futures
- Discussing issues and challenges for organisations in the cultural and creative sectors to embrace the sustainability transition.
- Foresighting culture and creative people as agents of change in innovation processes where identity, diversity and sustainability values are intrinsically embedded.
- Questioning the role and contribution of cultural policies and eco-conscious creative processes;
- Spotlighting the critical need for inter- and trans-disciplinary approaches to research and education.

The manuscripts submitted to this collection will be handled by the European Journal of Cultural Management and Policy (EJCMP), authors should consult the journal website for information about Article Types, Author Guidelines, and Publishing Fees. Please contact the Editorial Office at ejcmp@frontierspartnerships.org for any query concerning this initiative.

For ENCATC 2024 Education and Research Session presenters whose papers were published in the Congress Book of Proceedings, manuscripts that first appeared as conference papers must be expanded upon if they are to be considered as original work. Authors are required to add a substantial amount of original content in the form of new raw material or new treatment of old data sets which lead to original discussion and/or conclusions, providing value that significantly exceeds the original conference version. As a rule of thumb, at least 30% of the content must be original.

Even though abstract submission is not mandatory, we encourage all interested researchers to submit a manuscript summary before submitting their manuscript. Manuscript summaries do not have to coincide with the final abstract of the manuscripts.

Article types and fees

This Special Issue accepts the following article types, unless otherwise specified in the Special Issue description:

• Biography
• Commentary
• Impact
• Mini Review
• Original Research
• Policy Brief
• Review

Articles that are accepted for publication by our external editors following rigorous peer review incur a publishing fee charged to Authors, institutions, or funders.

Article types

This Special Issue accepts the following article types, unless otherwise specified in the Special Issue description:

• Biography
• Commentary
• Impact
• Mini Review
• Original Research
• Policy Brief
• Review

Keywords: Ecological emergency, Cultural transformation, Interdisciplinary collaboration, Innovation in culture, Sustainability