UNESCO

On 11 September, Anders Högberg and researchers from the University of Johannesburg visited the World Heritage site Agricultural Landcape of Southern Öland. They met up with Emma Rydnér, co-ordinator of the world heritage site, and Niklas Petersson who is one of the farmers keeping the world heritage alive. The researchers from Johannesburg are all in various ways working with the UNESCO World Heritage site Cradle of Humankind in South Africa. On Öland, the group had the opportunity to exchange knowledge and discuss aspects on how to build futures for world heritage site in different contexts.

Cornelius Holtorf, Anders Högberg and Harald Fredheim co-organized and co-chaired the session “EAA2500 – Thinking the Future in Archaeology and Archaeological Heritage Management” at the 25th Annual Meeting of the European Association of Archaeologists (EAA) in Bern, Switzerland (7 September 2019).

In a packed room speakers from Sweden, Japan, the US, the UK, Serbia, Australia, Italy and the Netherlands discussed with the audience:

• how do different perceptions of the future inform how archaeology is practiced and heritage is managed today?
• which future do archaeologists and heritage professionals actually work for?
• what kind of archaeology and heritage will be needed in the future (and how do we know)?
• how can we build capacity in future thinking (futures literacy) among archaeologists and heritage professionals?

“Absolut farmakon” (Stockholm: Ariel, 2019) är en väl skriven bok av historikern och kritikern Axel Andersson. Den  innehåller många intressanta och originella iakttagelser om kärnkraft och särskilt om kärnavfall. En karakteristisk mening låtar så här: “Fysiker hänvisar sällan till Kant när de talar om kriticitet” (s. 17). Sant!

Jag hade lite svårt att förstå relevansen av de långa redovisningar om Derrida, Stiegler, Gilligan, Ukele mm men det finns framför allt många egna observationer och kommentarer som väcker nya tankar om kärnavfall och dess koppling till framtiden. Sista stycket i boken är en bra sammanfattning av bokens resonemang:

”Det finns inte många möjligheter att projicera mänskligheten 100 000 år in i framtiden. Kärnavfallet är ett av de få. En ofantlig resurs för varje nation som idag äger avfall och således äger ansvar för det. Gestaltningen av återstoden kring förvaringen av kärnavfallet är också ett sätt att offentliggöra och demokratisera denna skatt. Den tillhör oss alla då det var vi, och våra anfäder, som använde energin som blev kärnavfall. Vi ska aldrig dö.”

I had the opportunity on 7 August 2019 in Kalmar to talk to Lena Ek, former Swedish Minister of the Environment (2011-2014) and directly involved in the negotiations of the United Nations Agenda 2030 and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). On my question about the prospects for making cultural sustainability more prominent in future global sustainability goals, she pointed out three important issues:

1. The SDGs focus on the most prioritised issues only, and it is significant already that culture is mentioned twice in the current targets (SDG 4.7 and SDG 11.4).
2. The SDGs evoke many other treaties and conventions, especially related to human rights. It may be important to relate cultural sustainability to cultural rights.
3. In the eyes of some nations, cultural issues and potential goals are not always very concrete or considered important for development, so there is room for more clarity on this.

Cornelius Holtorf presented a lecture (with discussion) entitled “Heritage and the Future” for an audience of almost 50 staff and students at all levels at the Department of Archaeology and Anthropology, University of Ibadan, Nigeria (24 July 2019).

Cornelius Holtorf och Anders Högberg led a future workshop in Kalmar for cirka 40 civil servants dealing with cultural heritage in southern Sweden (10 April 2019).

Cornelius Holtorf met up in Amsterdam, Netherlands, with Nour Munawar, Ihab Saloul and James Symonds of the University of Amsterdam and Bill Wei of Cultureel Erfgoed to prepare the ICOMOC University Forum on Thinking and Planning the Future in Heritage Management to be held 11-14 June 2019 in Amsterdam (12 April 2019).

Cornelius Holtorf was an invited discussant at a presentation by Mathilda Tham, Sarah Hultén-Cavallius and Åsa Ståhl of the Dept of Design about their Metadesign project BOOST –  Smart Housing Småland, given at Linnaeus University, Kalmar (25 April 2019).

Cornelius Holtorf was invited to contribute to an expert workshop on Cultural Heritage and Change, organised by the Funding bodies Riksbanken Jubileumsfond and Marcus and Amalia Wallenberg Foundation in preparation of an international call for research funding, to be launched later this year (2/3 May 2019).

Cornelius Holtorf took part during April and May 2019 in extended deliberations about the most appropriate response of the International Council of Monuments and Sites (ICOMOS) to the fire at Notre Dame.

Cornelius Holtorf met up with Alexandra Petrakou, University liaison officer at the Municipality of Kalmar, to discuss future collaboration in the context of the Kalmar 2020 initiative (3 June 2019).

Cornelius Holtorf led a half-day future workshop for 12 managers of the Culture and Leisure Department of the Municipality of Kalmar (17 June 2019).

Cornelius Holtorf lectured for staff and students on “Ist ‚Kulturerbe‘ zukunftsfähig? Kritische Thesen zu archäologischem Kulturerbe, kultureller Identität und Begrenzungen unseres Denkens für die Zukunft“ at the Heidelberg Center für Cultural Heritage, University of Heidelberg, Germany (25 June 2019).

Sarah May argues in a new paper on Heritage, endangerment and participation: alternative futures in the Lake District:

“When heritage is framed as inherently threatened, participation in heritage is framed as a battle against those threats. … endangerment domesticates dangerous pasts. However, endangerment also closes down futures by positioning present communities in a constant state of anxiety where the future is only apprehended as a threat to the past. But there are ways to participate in heritage–to enjoy it, create it, sustain it–not linked to endangerment. The practice of fell shepherding described here does not depend on endangerment to create futures but creates a future from patient care in the present.”

Sarah May (2019): Heritage, endangerment and participation: alternative futures in the Lake District, International Journal of Heritage Studies, DOI: 10.1080/13527258.2019.1620827 – available in open access.

Cornelius Holtorf took part in the First International Symposium of UNESCO Chairs in Anticipatory Systems, Futures Studies and Futures Literacy at the University of Trento, Italy (19-20 June 2019).

He presented the work of our UNESCO Chair on Heritage Futures for an audience of circa 60 participants who had come from as far as Malaysia, New Zealand, South Africa and Chile. Among them were six other UNESCO Chairs from Finland, Greece, Italy, Netherlands, UK and Uruguay plus members of their team as well as at least as many aspiring applicants.

The symposium was followed by a separate meeting on 21 June which discussed the prospects of establishing a Global Futures Literacy Network.

Are you curious about “Futures Literacy”? Learn more in this film from Hanse University Groningen!

ICOMOS University Forum organized by the UNESCO Chair on Heritage Futures at Linnaeus University, Kalmar, Sweden and the Amsterdam School for Heritage, Memory and Material Culture, in collaboration with ICOMOS International, ICOMOS Netherlands, and City of Amsterdam, held at Amsterdam, Netherlands, 11-14 June 2019

Photo Anneke Dekker (top) and Helena Rydén (bottom)

Professor Toshiyuki Kono, chairman of ICOMOS International and Professor Cornelius Holtorf, holder of the UNESCO Chair on Heritage Futures, joining for discussion in Amsterdam.

When pupils from Kalmar travelled to the future… Here is the film documenting a collaborative project of Kalmar County Museum and Linnaeus University’s UNESCO Chair on Heritage Futures. (Press “cc” to turn on English subtitles!)