Utilizing Culture and Creativity for Sustainable Development: Reflections on the City of Östersund’s Membership in the UNESCO Creative Cities Network

Within the last few years, cities around the world have promoted creativity as a new resource for driving future development. As a result, a number of networks have emerged around this theme. The UNESCO Creative Cities Network (UCCN) is one such network that attempts to use creativity as a mechanism to achieve sustainable growth and development. The network has grown rapidly since its inception in 2004 and now has 180 members worldwide, all of which have adopted the UCCN guidelines and directives. In this paper, the authors explore if and how cities use their membership to implement sustainable development goals. The paper uses the northern Swedish city of Östersund as a case study, which has been an active member of the UCCN since 2010. Study findings indicate that membership in the UCCN has enabled Östersund to advance sustainability discourse at a regional level, as well as improve practice in a limited sense. At the same time, findings also identify a number of challenges for integrating sustainability objectives into the UCCN.