UNESCO

Chair on Heritage Futures

Mondiacult and Our Common Agenda

2021-12-13

Cornelius Holtorf was invited to address the regional online consultation for Europe and North America ahead of the UNESCO World Conference on Cultural Policies and Sustainable Development (Mondiacult) to be held 28-30 September 2022 in Mexico.


Introduced by Nina Obuljen Koržinek, Minister of Culture and Media of Croatia, Cornelius had 3 minutes to address the 100+ high-level participants, including several Ministers of Culture and senior officials from national governments, supranational organizations and NGOs throughout Europe and North America.


As part of a session on Strengthening synergies between culture and education for human-centred development and sustainability, he took the opportunity to advocate for the importance of foresight and futures literacy in the culture and heritage sectors to be better prepared for the challenges of the future, as proposed in the UN Director-General’s recent report on “Our Common Agenda”.

He also pointed to the significance of culture and heritage for promoting an agenda of global solidarity and trust both within and between societies, likewise in line with the UN Director-General’s agenda but in his report unfortunately not linked to culture or heritage.

Preparing for UNESCO World Conference on Cultural Policies and Sustainable Development (Mondiacult) 2022 in Mexico

  • Preparing The UNESCO World Conference on Cultural Policies and Sustainable Development (Mondiacult) will be held in Mexico from September 28-30, 2022
  • Online Consultation on the 13 December 2021 (Cornelius Holtorf, Professor of Archaeology and holder of the UNESCO Chair on Heritage Futures at Linnaeus University on the Strengthening synergies between culture and
    education for human-centred development and sustainabilityMore information: https://www.gob.mx/sre/prensa/unesco-unanimously-approves-holding-mondiacult-2022-in-mexico?idiom=en

The Nordic Ministers of Culture approved the following Declaration: https://www.norden.org/en/declaration/art-and-culture-promoters-sustainable-development

Meeting with UNESCO, ICOMOS, IPCC on culture and climate change

2021-12-06

Cornelius Holtorf, UNESCO Chair on Heritage Futures

6-10 December 2021, Cornelius Holtorf Professor of Archaeology and holder of the UNESCO Chair on Heritage Futures at Linnaeus University, will participate in a unique meeting between United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and International Council on Monuments and Sites (ICOMOS). The idea is to strengthen synergies between culture and climate change science.

The meeting will bring together over one hundred experts from 45 countries across all regions and will bring research, expertise, and insights from wide disciplines. The meeting aims to establish a scientific merit to integrate cultural dimensions in climate action through three key areas: (1) vulnerability and understanding risks, (2) intangible cultural heritage, diverse knowledge systems and climate change, and (3) the role of cultural and natural heritage for climate action. The meeting will also include public-facing events, details of which can be found on the project website.

This meeting is an opportunity to showcase the significance of culture in relation to climate change. The way in which cultural heritage is discussed in relation to climate change has become much more sophisticated and relevant, no longer mainly about heritage ending up under rising water levels, says Cornelius Holtorf. This is a result of a dedicated effort by many people and initiatives.

Culture shapes how people make sense and therefore act in the world. Often, what people consider important in their lives is connected to cultural patterns derived from the past – their cultural heritage. Culture and cultural heritage are the key to assist present and future generations in adapting to changing circumstances, together.

More about the Chair:

https://lnu.se/en/unescochair

UNESCO Chair on Heritage Futures is a member of the Climate Heritage Network.

More information about the meeting 6-10 December 2021:

https://www.cultureclimatemeeting.org/

Forskningsprojekt om framtidsperspektiv hos ungdomar i utsatt stadsdel

2021-12-03

Linnéuniversitetet och Växjö kommun samarbetar i ett forskningsprojekt som startar våren 2022. Projektet kommer att studera framtidsperspektiv hos ungdomar som är bosatta i den utsatta stadsdelen Araby i Växjö.

Araby är en stadsdel med stor mångfald, men som också räknas som särskilt utsatt av polisen på grund av hög arbetslöshet och kriminalitet. Syftet med projektet är att stärka banden mellan ungdomar i Araby, kommunala organisationer och offentliga kulturarvsaktörer. Forskningen kommer att ge konkreta och praktiska förslag till kulturaktörer i utvecklingen och förmedlingen av kulturarv i en miljö som präglas av stor mångfald. Det övergripande syftet är att ge kulturaktörer i Växjö kommun bättre redskap för att skapa delaktighet, och på så vis bidra till den sociala sammanhållningen.

Tanken är att resultatet från detta projekt kommer att vara till nytta för kulturaktörer utanför Växjö, som ett inspirerande exempel.

Partners och roller:
Projektet fokuserar på samverkan med flera aktörer. Fältarbetet kommer att bedrivas av Gustav Wollentz från Nordiskt centrum för kulturarvspedagogik, som är samarbetspartner med Centrum för tillämpat kulturarv vid Linnéuniversitetet. Under första året kommer intervjuer och fältarbete genomföras i Araby för att samla in perspektiv. Under andra året kommer fokus ligga på hur resultaten från fältarbetet år 1 kan hjälpa offentliga kulturarvsaktörer att skapa delaktighet och mångfald.

Ökat framtidsmedvetande kommer sannolikt att bli alltmer betydelsefullt inom kulturarvssektorn och i samhället i stort, och är viktigt för att kunna möta de utmaningar som samhället står inför.

 

 

Our Common Agenda

2021-11-28

UN Secretary-General António Guterres has now published a report “Our Common Agenda” which contains his recommendations in the light of the UN Initiative Shaping Our Future Together launched on the occasion of the United Nations’ 75th birthday in 2020.

Under the title “Our Common Agenda” he argued that now is the time …

  1. to re-embrace global solidarity and find new ways to work together for the common good.
  2. to renew the social contract between Governments and their people and within societies, so as to rebuild trust and embrace a comprehensive vision of human rights.
  3. to end the “infodemic” plaguing our world by defending a common, empirically backed consensus around facts, science and knowledge.
  4. to correct a glaring blind spot in how we measure economic prosperity and progress. When profits come at the expense of people and our planet, we are left with an incomplete picture of the true cost of economic growth.
  5. to think for the long term, to deliver more for young people and succeeding generations and to be better prepared for the challenges ahead.
  6. for a stronger, more networked and inclusive multilateral system, anchored within the United Nations

Among others, Guterres recommends to hold a Summit of the Future to forge a new global consensus on what our future should look like, and what we can do today to secure it.

Much of this agenda is closely relate to the aims of our UNESCO Chair on Heritage Futures. But it is striking that the entire report “Our Common Agenda” does not recognise the significance of culture (not to mention cultural heritage) in achieving these aims!

Culture is about how people make sense of the world, how they identify, whom they trust, what they value, which norms they follow. How strange that the UN has not yet discovered its significance!

Collaboration with Korea

2021-11-22

A Memorandum of Understanding has now been signed by the two Deans of the College of Cultural Heritage at Korea National University of Cultural Heritage and the Faculty of Arts and Humanities at Linnaeus University.

In the MoU the two sides expressed their intention to collaborate in the following ways:

  1. Exchange of students, faculty members/researchers and administrative staff,
  2. Joint lectures, seminars, and conferences,
  3. Collaborative academic research/teaching projects and activities.

The MoU is the result of a visit by a delegation from Korea to the UNESCO Chair on Heritage Futures at Linnaeus University in 2019.

Framtidsmedvetande inom kulturarvssektorn

2021-11-20

Gustav Wollentz (NCK) diskuterar frågan “Hur kan vi öka framtidsmedvetandet inom kulturarvssektorn?” på EPALE (Europeisk plattform för vuxnas lärande). Hans slutsats:

Det går att konkludera att ett utökat framtidsmedvetande är en kompetens som man kan lära sig, och som sannolikt kommer bli alltmer betydelsefull både specifikt inom kulturarvssektorn och även i samhället i stort. På många vis är det nödvändigt för att faktiskt kunna möta de utmaningar som samhället står inför.

Gustavs forskning genomfördes med stöd av, och i samarbete med Unescoprofessuren om Heritage Futures.

Progress Report 09/2020-08/2021

2021-11-19

This report covers the fourth year for which the UNESCO Chair on Heritage Futures at Linnaeus University was originally established in 2017. During the entire year, the team continued to work under the spell of the global COVID-19 pandemic, which meant a drastic cut of travelling and a similarly drastic increase of virtual meetings hosted around the world.

A particular highlight of the year was the publication by Routledge of the book Cultural Heritage and the Future (co-edited by C. Holtorf and A. Högberg, 2021).

At the end of the year, the research group received the excellent news that the Chair has been renewed by UNESCO for another four years.

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

Read more and download the report

Progress Report 2020-2021

Radiation Safety Authority follows

2021-11-15

In the new report “Redovisning av regeringsuppdrag om metoder för säkerställande av information och kunskap över lång tid för slutförvaret för kärnbränsle” (SSM rapport 2021:24), the Swedish Nuclear Safety Authority has been documenting known methods for achieving long-term memory in relation to nuclear waste repositories.


The report makes reference to the key literature and documentation in the field globally, while also discussing the specific situation in Sweden. We have long been in touch with the two authors Carl-Henrik Pettersson and Annika Bratt, and so it is not surprising that the work of Linnaeus University on this topic, both in Sweden and internationally, is mentioned on several occasions. This includes in particular a short separate discussion of the 2019 workshop Information and Memory for Future Decision-Making – Radioactive Waste and Beyond run by the Swedish Nuclear Waste Council in Stockholm and the VINNOVA project on Memory Across Generations it led to. There is also a short discussion of our research project Ett hundra tusen år bakom och framåt i tiden – arkeologi möter kärnbränsleförvaring supported by the Swedish Nuclear Fuel and Waste Management Co back in 2012-2015.

We are still very involved in these issues, at the moment mostly as part of an expert group at the OECD’s Nuclear Energy Agency.

Lessons from heritage for nuclear waste disposal sites

2021-11-10

Cornelius Holtorf presented a paper by him together with Anders Högberg at the Interdisciplinary research symposium on the safety of nuclear disposal practices: Technical and Social Approaches to Managing the Hazardous Legacy of Nuclear Power Generation (10-12 Nov 2021) arranged by the Federal Office for the Safety of Nuclear Waste Management in Germany (BASE).

The paper was entitled “Lessons from archaeology and heritage studies for the long-term preservation of records, knowledge and memory concerning deep geological disposal sites for nuclear waste” and its abstract is available as part of the conference proceedings at https://sand.copernicus.org/articles/1/287/2021/.