Opponent: Professor Bodil Axelsson, Linköpings universitet
Examination Committee: Dr Anne S Beck, Museum Sydøstdanmark, Professor Mats Burström, Stockholms universitet, Docent Richard Pettersson, Umeå universitet
Supervisor: Professor Anders Högberg; Linnéuniversitetet
Chair/internal examiner: Professor Cornelius Holtorf, Linnéuniversitetet
ABSTRACT:
Claiming that cultural heritage must be preserved for sustainable urban development and for the benefit of future generations is common practice in cultural heritage management and urban planning. But when cultural heritage is used as a resource in urban transformation processes, do current heritage practices, including archaeology, promote the socially sustainable urban futures they aim to achieve?
This research aims to generate new knowledge on how Swedish contract archaeology can contribute to sustainable urban development and good living environments in an informed and innovative manner. By adopting a broad perspective, I explore how cultural heritage is utilized as a resource in urban transformation and design processes to promote social sustainability. Employing an interdisciplinary theoretical framework, I examine how the social sustainability effects of current heritage practices, including archaeology, affect sustainable futures making. The research includes three case studies on urban transformation: the Caroli quarter in Malmö (1967–1973), the Valnötsträdet quarter in Kalmar (2008–2018), and the ongoing transformation of Kiruna town.
The results highlight how contradictions between legislation’s focus on the past and cultural and urban planning’s future-oriented goals institutionalize ideas about cultural heritage value and the perception that preservation is a sustainable heritage practice in itself. Consequently, archaeology is rarely seen as a process or practice that promotes social sustainability. Instead, focus is on the value of the built historic environment and stories about the past, assuming that using these elements in development and design processes will promote present and future sustainability values, such as attractiveness, security, social cohesion, and collective identities. However, the results show that expected social sustainability goals are rarely met due to a lack of citizen participation and a lack of understanding of what is required to achieve these goals in the present and for the imagined futures. I argue that to effect change, it is necessary to explore futures literacy in theory and practice, deepen comprehension of how archaeology and heritage practices contribute to social value, and broaden participation in discussions and decisions regarding how cultural heritage can be used as a resource in urban development processes.
From left: Members of the UNESCO Chair on Heritage Futures, Helena Rydén, Cornelius Holtorf, Ulrika Söderström, Anders Högberg and Gustav Wollentz.
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!
In a new paper in the International Journal of Cultural Property, the Glasgow-based law scholar Andreas Giorgallis discusses the idea of protecting cultural heritage for the benefit of future generations in international cultural heritage law.
Giorgallis (2024: 1-2) points out that the idea of protecting cultural heritage to bequeath it to future generations is probably the most commonly cited rationale upon which legal regulation is justified. But nevertheless, law scholars hardly ever studied it. Instead, he notes, intergenerational concerns for cultural heritage “have migrated to other fields of studies, including heritage studies, cultural economics, museum studies, archaeology, and anthropology taking on sizable portions of the discourse”. Here, he also cites some of the work of authors associated with the UNESCO Chair on Heritage Futures.
Intriguingly, Giorgallis confirms (2024: 11) that none of the routine legislative pieces referring to future generations designates their exact identity nor does it determine their rights and obligations regarding cultural heritage.
Giorgallis also suggests (2024: 18) that “[a]ttempting to predict the tastes and priorities of future generations in cultural heritage is not an easy enterprise. The danger of imposing a majoritarian take on contemporary tastes in a rather paternalistic and neocolonial way is ever-present…” But this risk of presentism can be avoided by drawing on foresight and futures literacy – which is a capability our Chair is building among global heritage professionals.
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Giorgallis A. The idea of protecting cultural heritage for the benefit of future generations in international cultural heritage law. International Journal of Cultural Property. Published online 2024:1-24. doi:10.1017/S0940739124000171
Cornelius Holtorf participated and presented the work of our Chair in the 2024 International UNESCO Chairs Conference at Leuphania University Lüneburg, Germany, dedicated to the theme “UNESCO Chairs’ Perspectives on Sustainable Development Goals” (7-9 October 2024).
Among the ca 60 participants were UNESCO Chairholders and team members of 10 German UNESCO Chairs as well as of ca. 10 international UNESCO Chairs from Canada, India, Netherlands, Norway, and the U.K., and several senior representatives of the German UNESCO Commission and its Secretariate in Bonn.
I participated on invitation of Michael Kloos, UNESCO Chair on Historic Urban Landscapes and Heritage Impact Assessments at RheinMain University of Applied Sciences in Wiesbaden, Germany.
Cornelius Holtorf visited the activities with young people during Kalmar Town Festival, organized by Kalmar municipality’s cultural section under the label “Expedition Future” and inspired by our work in the UNESCO Chair on Heritage Futures (10 August 2024).
Cornelius Holtorf and Anders Högberg ran a Mini Futures Workshop for 30+ colleagues during the Kick-off meeting of the Department of Cultural Sciences at Linnaeus University, Sweden (20 August 2024).
Cornelius Holtorf sent comments and suggestions to the revised draft guidance note on ‘Climate action for living heritage’ to the UNESCO Living Heritage entitity (20 August 2024).
Cornelius Holtorf presented a talk on “Is Archaeology Ready to Address the Climate Heritage Paradox?” for an audience of 25+ attending the session on “Archaeologies of Climate Change? Current Issues and Future Directions” held at the 30th Annual Meeting of the European Association of Archaeologists in Rome, Italy (31 August 2024)
Cornelius Holtorf attended an online symposium on “Nuclear Futures. Art, Speculation, Matter, Performance” arranged by Linköping University (11 September 2024).
Cornelius Holtorf took part in meetings of the Pledge Network, promoting strong references to future generations and their interests in the UN Summit of the Futures in September 2024 in New York and its aftermath (12 September 2024).
Cornelius Holtorf attended the report launch of the project “The Nuclear Spaces: Communities, Materialities and Locations (NuSPACES)” featuring speakers Sam Alberti (National Museums Scotland) and Elizabeth Norton (NDA) addressing questions of nuclear cultural heritage, held at the Science Museum, London, and online (18 September 2024).
Cornelius Holtorf participated in a side-event to the UN Summit of the Future organised by the Culture 2030 Goal Campaign and entitled “No Future Without Culture: Reflecting and Imagining on the Place of Culture in Delivering the Past for the Future” (20 September 2024).
Cornelius Holtorf followed online selected parts of the Action Days preceding the UN Summit of the Future, featuring, among others António Guterres, General-Secretary of the United Nations, Gabriella Ramos, the UNESCO Assistant Director-General for the Social and Human Sciences, Mamphela Ramphela, the former Co-Director of the Club of Rome, and Kim Stanley Robinson, the author of The Ministry for the Future (20-21 September 2024).
Cornelius Holtorf had an informal meeting in Cordoba, Spain, with Matthias Ripp, World Heritage Coordinator of Regensburg (Germany) and OWHC Regional Division Representative, discussing future collaborations (24 September).
Cornelius Holtorf contributed to a meeting of cirka 30 international experts and UNESCO staff finalising a guidance note on Safeguarding intangible cultural and climate change. The expert meeting was chaired by Fumiko Ohinata, Secretary of the UNESCO 2003 Convention and held digitally on 25-26 September 2024.
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.
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