UNESCO

Today, Ulrika Söderström, defended her PhD thesis entitled “Cultural Heritage as a Resource in Socially Sustainable Urban Development: A Designed Living Environment for the Future” (Swedish with an extensive English summary), in front of an audience of 40 in the room and another 20 online.

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.