Anders Högberg and Gustav Wollentz from the UNESCO Chair on Heritage Futures were on the 22 November 2024 invited to conduct a workshop on future awareness for the management group at the Department for Nature and Cultural Heritage in the Region Västra Götaland. During the day we met 12 persons, and the workshop lasted for four hours. It took place at the Museum of Natural History in Gothenburg.
The main question we explored was: What will the museums’ societal role/mission look like in 2050? This question was approached through a series of sub-questions, for example with the aim of identifying societal challenges and how these can be proactively met through actions today.
The workshop was based on dialogue and the exchange of different perspectives and experiences. By such an approach, participants took on a more open approach to different types of futures in relation to the museums’ societal role and mission. In the exchange after the workshop, it was highlighted as particularly important to be able to approach the future as open where several different alternatives are conceivable. Participants expressed it as liberating not to see the future solely as an extension of the present, and to be able to seriously engage in considering alternatives for the future.
Museum of Natural History in Gothenburg. Photo Gustav Wollentz
Reconsidering the Heritage Future of Nuclear Waste Hazards: A Permanent Legacy
By C. Pescatore, Affiliated Researcher and member of the UNESCO Chair on Heritage Futures at Linnaeus University
The question of “How long and how dangerous is high-level nuclear waste?” is rarely answered in full. Often, people are told that the radiation threat will diminish over time, as many radioactive products decay. While this is true to an extent, it only tells part of the story. The reality is more complex and far-reaching. Spent nuclear fuel is composed of roughly 95% uranium-238 (U-238), an isotope that behaves differently than the remaining 5% components that are much more actively decaying. Although its radioactivity may initially seem insignificant compared to more immediate hazards, over time U-238 will reconstitute its decay chain, leading to a resurgence of radioactive danger.
The radioactivity of U-238 does not simply decrease to insignificance; instead, it eventually increases as it reestablishes its broken decay-family, producing a host of hazardous progeny isotopes. For spent fuel, this increase becomes dominant beyond the one-million-year mark – well beyond the timeframe when many safety analyses have already been concluded. While safety cases often focus on the decay of radioactivity, they overlook the radioactive ingrowth that arises from U-238. This shift challenges conventional thinking and demands a refocusing of our long-term strategies for managing nuclear waste.
The implication is profound: the danger from high-level nuclear waste does not merely fade away. It transforms into a persistent, long-term alpha-, beta- and gamma-radiation hazard that requires sustained vigilance and robust containment strategies far into the future. This enduring risk calls into question assumptions about the timeframe for which safety must be maintained, extending our responsibilities across an almost unimaginable span of time.
Preserving Memory and Heritage for the Far Future
This brings us to the pressing question of heritage, memory, and how we communicate the information about high-level nuclear waste across extended time spans. Ensuring that future societies remember the existence and significance of these waste repositories requires a robust effort to preserve records, knowledge, and memory (RK&M).
One promising approach is the use of millennial time capsules strategically placed within or near repositories. These capsules can carry messages, warnings, and cultural artifacts that bridge the gap between our time and a distant future. Some capsules could be constructed from the same materials as the waste containers and placed within the repository to offer a final, deeply embedded source of knowledge that future discoverers might encounter, potentially guiding their understanding and actions.
Near-surface capsules could further engage communities through rituals of memory preservation and periodic inspections, creating cultural continuity and reinforcing the message of caution. Historical examples like the Osaka Castle Dual Time Capsule illustrate how science and cultural heritage can blend to transmit knowledge across generations.
Photo: Osaka Time capsule monument, Wikipedia, 12 februari 2012 https://fr.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fichier:Osaka_Time_Capsule.jpg
However, even with the best physical and cultural tools at our disposal, the fundamental question remains: How do we effectively communicate the danger posed by these wastes across millennia? Symbols, language, stories, and rituals may change, but the risk endures. Preserving memory is not just a technical challenge; it is a societal one, requiring us to create a living “heritage future” of caution, awareness, and responsibility – one that future generations can draw upon to protect themselves from the enduring radiation hazard that lies beneath.
A new report covers the seventh year of the UNESCO Chair on Heritage Futures at Linnaeus University. Among the highlights of the year were several global occasions at which our Chair could contribute with perspectives on ‘Heritage Futures’.
This included the ICOMOS General Assembly 2023 held in Sydney, Australia, the Dubai Future Forum in Dubai, UAE, and UNESCO World Futures Day 2023 in December at UNESCO Headquarters in Paris where Cornelius Holtorf was running a topical plenary panel (photo in the head of the page).
On various occasions throughout the year, the team members had the chance to meet and connect with UNESCO Chairholders from different corners of the world, working on culture, heritage, the future, and other questions. Such meetings and exchanges of views are always stimulating and important, not the least as it contributes to strengthening global trust and joint multilateral engagements for a better world.
Heritage in Transformation
In spring, Cornelius Holtorf spent three months as a Conservation Guest Scholar at the Getty in Los Angeles, USA. His project was entitled “Heritage in Transformation” and explored how, in a world where the future is not what it used to be, we can conceptualize the past and practice cultural heritage in correspondingly new ways.
This report is published shortly after the 2024 UN Summit of the Future has been held in New York. The Summit agreed on a global Pact for the Future and a Declaration on Future Generations, both of which referring to culture and cultural heritage. It will be exciting to follow how this will strengthen the case for heritage futures in Sweden and the other UN member states across the years to come.
Please get in touch if you have any comments or suggestions!
On the 16th of September Gustav Wollentz presented as an invited speaker on an inspirational day for the World Heritage Site “Naval Port of Karlskrona”. Around 110 people participated from the region, including representatives from the County Administrative Board, museum professionals, researchers from the university, local politicians, and more. The focus on Gustav’s presentation was how Strategic Foresight can benefit a sustainable development of a World Heritage Site. Examples were provided from the work that Gustav has been carrying out with ICCROM, where he has been working to anticipate futures for heritage.
Gustav also participated in a panel discussion where the focus was on how to apply methods from Strategic Foresight when managing a World Heritage Site. We were discussing how to make this kind of work more participatory, so that the futures anticipated would reflect an increasingly diverse society rather than very limited needs and aspirations. We were also discussing some key concepts in Foresight, such as the value in “wild cards” and the difference between “used futures” (futures that have been reused over and over again to no success) and “novel futures” (the future that we may never have anticipated before).
There is indeed an increasing interest in how Foresight and anticipation can benefit heritage management!
Dr Gustav Wollentz is a member of the UNESCO Chair on Heritage Futures. He is a Senior Lecturer at Linnaeus University with a particular focus on critical heritage studies. He is also a consultant for ICCROM (International Centre for the Study of the Preservation and Restoration of Cultural Property). Former director at NCK, The Nordic Centre of Heritage Learning and Creativity.
The heritage sector has up until now seldom engaged with Strategic Foresight to better prepare for – and proactively face – different futures. This makes a new study just published by ICCROM (International Centre for the Study of the Preservation and Restoration of Cultural Property) significant as an example that could potentially inspire other heritage actors to venture on their own Foresight journeys.
In 2021, ICCROM, as part of its Foresight Initiative, employed Strategic Foresight to anticipate different futures for the heritage sector globally. This was done to increase resilience in the face of a changing world and outline possible opportunities for action. Gustav Wollentz, from the UNESCO Chair on Heritage Futures, is one of the authors of the study, together with Alison Heritage and Amy Iwasaki. Cornelius Holtorf contributed as an expert advisor.
To undertake this work, ICCROM launched a horizon scan study, which is an established method within Strategic Foresight, to gather intelligence about possible macro-environmental changes that might affect cultural heritage in the future. The project engaged an interdisciplinary team of 18 researchers and two advisors from different world regions who collectively generated over 60 research reports looking out over a 15-year horizon. The findings are categorized according to the PESTE-Framework: Political, Environmental, Societal, Technological and Economic.
Radio Sweden made a pod (Dystopia ) where Anders Högberg is interviewed (in Swedish) https://sverigesradio.se/avsnitt/atomsoporna-och-slutforvaret, the content is partly based on the research carried out by members of the Chair, Cornelius Holtorf and Anders Högberg.
Cornelius Holtorf and Anders Högberg, UNESCO Chair on Heritage Futures
On Wednesday 13 December 2023, Anders Högberg was invited by University of Ferrara to give a keynote lecture on the topic “Heritage Futures and Futures Literacy. New roles for heritage in managing the relations between present and future societies”.
The keynote was presented at the Kaleidoscope of Sustainability, 5th Annual Kick-off Symposium of the PhD programme Environmental Sustainability and Wellbeing. It is a program that focuses on the research and training of young scholars interested in a multidisciplinary approach to sustainability and wellbeing. It is an impressive inter-disciplinary research school set-up be the University of Ferrara in co-operation with a wide range of universities from around the globe. It attracts PhD-students from the Humanities, Social Science, Economics, Law, Architecture, Urban Planning, Engineering, Chemical Sciences, and Biomedical Sciences.
Anders Högberg, Professor of Archaeology UNESCO Chair on Heritage Futures
Cornelius Holtorf and Helena Rydén celebrated UNESCO World Futures Day 2023 #FuturesDay at UNESCO Headquarters in Paris, by joining the global conversation on futures and foresight: Building Inclusive Societies through Futures Literacy & Foresight.
The event was well attended, both in Paris and online.
World Futures Day in Paris, UNESCO 2023. The day ended with experimental future-oriented approaches, by Pedro De Senna, Cornelius Holtorf and Laura Watts. You can see the recording here https://webcast.unesco.org/events/2023-12-WFD/ (starts at ca 3:23:00).
This report covers the sixth year of the UNESCO Chair on Heritage Futures at Linnaeus University. Among the highlights of the year were several global initiatives which our Chair could influence with its distinctive perspective on heritage futures that becomes ever better known. This included the UNESCO World Conference on Cultural Policies and Sustainable Development MONDIACULT 2022 in Mexico City at the end of September. The conference established the significance of culture as a global public good and called for the inclusion of culture as a stand-along goal in the post-2030 international development agenda.
Cornelius Holtorf at UNESCO World Conference on Cultural Policies and Sustainable Development MONDIACULT 2022 in Mexico City. The conference was attended by more than 100 ministers of culture, but also representatives from over 150 intergovernmental organizations, UNESCO partners, civil society, and some of the other UNESCO Chairs in the field of culture.
A topic that remains significant in our work is memory across generations related to repositories of nuclear waste. In this context, Sarah May co-edited a new volume on Toxic heritage, and Anders Högberg and I published a paper on “Nuclear Waste as Critical Heritage” that in some ways constitutes a conclusion of our decade-long research on these issues. Among the research projects listed below is a range of exciting new empirical research Chair members have been involved in over the past year.
There were also several opportunities to meet and collaborate with other UNESCO Chairholders from different corners of the world. These are important occasions as they pave the way for global collaborations in new areas.
Please get in touch if you have any comments or suggestions!
Cornelius Holtorf, Professor of Archaeology, and holder of the UNESCO Chair on Heritage Futures
If you are interested in learning more, you can read this information as well about future consciousness at some Swedish County Museums:
Högberg, A., Wollentz, G., Holtorf, C. (2022)
Framtidsmedvetande på museer: Några svenska länsmuseer i fokus Nordisk Museologi, 34(2): 5-22 https://doi.org/10.5617/nm.10068
Anders Högberg, Professor of Archaeology UNESCO Chair on Heritage Futures
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