UNESCO

Chair on Heritage Futures

Chilean Futures

2022-12-18

Cornelius Holtorf visited colleagues at the Instituto de Investigaciones Arqueológicas y Museo at the Universidad Católica del Norte in San Pedro de Atacama, Chile.

Together with a group of indigenous community members interested in utilising their natural resources and supporting crucial land claims, we went into the field to survey precolonial (Inca) remains of irrigated terraces at more than 4,000m altitude. Water supply is still of great importance for any kind of agriculture in this desert, one of the driest places on Earth (although a little cloudy on the day of our visit!).

Inca irrigated terraces for agriculture

As a ‘future archaeologist’ I am interested, on the one hand, in applying archaeology to improve people’s lives in the near (short) future. This can mean strengthening claims to land entitlements after 2024 when the current terms will expire.


Modern water channel

On the other hand, the specific circumstances also evoke a more distant (long) future: indigenous communities have been negotiating considerable and long-lasting monetary compensation from mining companies operating on their land or nearby and affecting their water supply and living conditions. The lithium being mined, in turn, is essential for the current green transition to carbon-neutral and sustainable technologies (such es electric cars) elsewhere in the world.

Mining in northern Chile


In such complex situations, what we need to make the best decisions is enhanced futures literacy: how can we escape presentism and imagine a wide range of future possibilities while making the best decisions for living people and their descendants, especially when they are poor and marginalised?

Looking back at World Futures Day

2022-12-13

Cornelius Holtorf attended the proceedings of the first UNESCO World Futures Day at UNESCO Headquarters in Paris on 2 December 2022.

The full day programme featured a meet and great session for some 30 UNESCO Chairs and other foresight experts associated with the Futures Literacy Network at UNESCO, a panel chaired by Gabriela Ramos, Assistant Director-General for the Social and Human Sciences, and a reception, among others.

Among the highlights were the following quotes used during the day: 

“The Future is not the goal but only an excuse, a means, to think better for the world”, Gabriela Ramos, ADG for SSH

“We live for the future, that’s where the action is”, Patrick Noack, Director Dubai Future Foundation, UAE

“I do not want to foresee the future. I am concerned with taking care of the present.” “Be the change that you wish to see in the world”, Mahatma Gandhi, India

“Focus on it being a world worth saving rather than try saving the world”, Geci Karuri-Sebina, University of Witwatersrand, South Africa

 

 

Swedish UNESCO Chairs meet

2022-11-29

Cornelius Holtorf participated in a national network meeting of Swedish UNESCO Chairs held at the National Commission for UNESCO in Stockholm (29 Nov 2022).

Five UNESCO Chairs in Sweden

Among the participants were four other UNESCO Chairs, the Chair and the General-Secretary as well as key staff of the National Commission for UNESCO. We presented our current work for each other and discussed future collaboration nationally, in the Nordic countries, with the Swedish and Nordic delegations to UNESCO in Paris, and globally.

Remembering the Past in the Future

2022-11-23

Cornelius Holtorf attended the conference “Remembering the Past in the Future” arranged by the Expert Group on Awareness Preservation of the Nuclear Energy Agency at the OECD at the Tabloo Visitor Centre in Dessel, Belgium (22-24 November 2022).

He organised and chaired a session on “Conceptualising Remembrance Across Generations” which was attended by an audience of more than 60. His own paper was entitled “History or heritage? Understanding cultural processes over time”. Anders Högberg participated virtually in the session and presented on “Futures literacy – Why it matters to transmit information on high-level radioactive waste to future generations.” The session ended in a lively discussion on what exactly the message might be that the present needs to send to the future in relation to long-term memory of final repositories of nuclear waste.

COP 27 on loss and damage

2022-11-18

The United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP 27) held in November 2022 in Sharm El-Sheik, Egypt, featured among many other events a session entitled “Losing the Irreplaceable: Loss & Damage, Culture & Heritage” which was arranged as part of the Resilience Hub on 17 November 2022.

This session, which Cornelius Holtorf attended digitally, was about cultural dimensions of loss and damage as a result of climate change. It asked: How does one grieve from the loss of the irreplaceable? What is the price of cultural extinction? Does loss mean the same thing in every culture?

In this perspective, heritage represents something irreplaceable that needs to be saved from loss and protected from damage.

But another way of looking at some of these issues is by asking: can heritage help us to increase resilience and adapt culture and heritage to changing natural conditions? What heritage is being created as a result of climate change? How can we enhance wellbeing of future generations despite major transformations we anticipate? 

As Hannah Fluck of the National Trust in the UK explained, one innovative strategy forward is focussing on “adaptive release”.

First Nordic UNESCO Chair meeting

2022-11-17

Cornelius Holtorf participated on 17 November 2022 in the first Nordic UNESCO Chair meeting with 11 chairholders from Norway, Denmark, Finland and Sweden.

Among the themes we are jointly interested in are sustainability, rights, and education/training – all engaging with some grand challenges for global societies and/or the planet.

We agreed to have more collaboration in the future and look for ways to meet up physically. Maybe we could find resources that will allow us to document and discuss the value of our work for society, UNESCO, our national UNESCO Commissions, and our universities…

Review by Sergiu Musteata

2022-11-16

Professor Dr. Sergiu Musteata, History and Geography Faculty, “Ion Creanga” State University, Chișinău, Moldova reviewed our book Cultural Heritage and the Future (Holtorf and Högberg 2021) in the Romanian journal Plural 10 (1), 2022, 177-181. Contact address for the author: sergiu_musteata@yahoo.com

Here are some excerpts machine-translated into English:

“The introductory part, the coordinators of the volume note that the research of the future and its relationship with cultural heritage is quite a field again and started to be addressed only a few years ago. The need for one such research comes from the circumstances to which the world is exposed today – rapid changes in all spheres of life, uncertain future, etc. … The collection of studies is practical the fruit of the effort of an international team for ten years that comes with an authentic, innovative and critical approach to a topic that deserves much attention greater, both from academic and political circles. …

“In conclusion, we highlight the fact that practically all authors noted that inheritance culture and the future are closely linked and that it should be a priority for the academic environment, for young people and for all those who are active in the fields of museography, cultural heritage, archaeology, anthropology, architecture, conservation, restoration, sociology, history, geography, etc. The present volume contributes to a better understanding of the relationship between the future and cultural heritage, which is an under-researched area. Because, cultural heritage and cultural heritage management must occupy a distinct place in the construction of a sustainable future. … Although the volume does not cover all aspects of cultural heritage and its relationship with the future, I am sure that this work will contribute to a better and wider research on the role of cultural heritage in building strategies and processes of the future. That is why I recommend this collection of studies not only to experts in the fields of cultural heritage, but also politicians and other professional categories who are concerned with the future of humanity. Because only through one approach visionary and interdisciplinary we can achieve the expected results, he anticipates certain risks, increase the confidence and security of the citizen, plan and build a sustainable future based on cultural heritage.”

The full review is available here.

The Future of Cultural Objects

2022-11-08

Cornelius Holtorf contributed to a course in challenge-based learning near Trento, Italy (8 November 2022). The course was organised by the The European Consortium of Innovative Universities (ECIU) where learners, teachers and researchers cooperate with society and businesses to solve real-life challenges. The challenge was put together by Francesca Odella of the University of Trento and focused on the future of cultural objects.

My presentation was held at the Trentino Folklife Museum in San Michele all’ Adige and entitled “Heritage Futures: how culture and heritage must change for the future”. Some students joint via link.

Delphi Study on UN Foresight plans

2022-11-05

The Millennium Project, a global participatory think tank with 70 “Nodes” around the world has published its report: Five UN Foresight Elements of Our Common Agenda: Results of a Real-Time Delphi Study.

UN Secretary-General António Guterres issued Our Common Agenda, a bold report on UN reforms that includes five foresight elements; these elements were assessed by The Millennium Project. The five elements are:

  • UN Futures Lab
  • UN Summit on the Future
  • UN Envoy for Future Generations
  • Periodic UN Strategic Foresight and Global Threats reports
  • Re-purposed UN Trusteeship Council as a Multi-Stakeholder Foresight Body

a global study of 189 futurists and others from 54 countries. I was one of the contributors.