UNESCO

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.