Cultural environment as a potential for society renewal

The renewal of society is a wide term in its original sense but in the context of the article, it is linked with issues of depopulation, territorial polarization and shrinking processes in Latvia. One of the “hot points” for local governments has been finding ways to attract people and promote development of rural territories for the past decades. Both theoretical and practical solutions for maintaining rural society and promoting renewal of society are the development of cultural environment. Cultural activities directly affect public participation, cooperation among the population, the development of creativity, and promotion of inclusive society, health and society renewal. As recent investigations show, cultural environment is broadly developing in rural territories of Latvia. The research of cultural environment as a potential for the renewal of society of Latvia is a novelty due to the beginning of the National Research Programme for the period 2014–2017 funded by the Government of Latvia (EKOSOC LV projects 5.2.4., 5.2.8.). The aim of the article is to analyse cultural environment as a potential for renewal of society in rural territories of Latvia. The research object is planning and development documents of local governments, different agents of rural territories. The research questions are the following: How do local governments link development of cultural environment to settlement patterns, population attraction, place development and renewal of society? How are these links reflected in planning and development documents of local governments and in point of view of different social agents in rural territories? The results of the study reveal development of cultural environment in rural territories in Latvia. However, these practices are fragile yet and need support. They can bring forth new social and economic structures and serve as promoters of smart development of rural territories in Latvia. For this reason, local governments should create their own strategies in order to appreciate and support cultural activities as their potential for renewal of rural society.