UNESCO

Chair on Heritage Futures

German UNESCO Chairs Conference

2024-10-08

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.

Why Cultural Futures Make Us Hopeful

2024-09-19

I chaired and presented in a session entitled “Why Cultural Futures Make us Hopeful” at the Building Hopeful Futures Festival, a virtual side-event in the run-up to the UN Summit of the Future in New York (19 September 2024).

I was joined by the global artist Kai Altmann (XLE.LIFE) and the heritage professional Alison Heritage (ICCROM, Rome, Heritage Foresight initiative). Almost 40 people attended the session live.

This session explored the role of culture in anticipation and futures thinking. We discussed why a global Pact for the Future should take culture seriously, what we can learn from transcultural futurisms, and how cultural heritage can be a tool for future-making.

In my presentation, I argued that building better futures for human beings benefits from acknowledging the importance of culture for being human.

I gave three reasons why culture is so important in relation to future-making: it helps us (1) thinking across generations, (2) understanding how people are making sense of the world which informs how they act, and (3) asking in what future we all want to live.

Wicked Problems for Archaeologists

2024-09-01

John Schofield’s new book Wicked Problems for Archaeologists. Heritage as Transformative Practice (OUP, 2024, 300pp.) was prompted by Shadreck Chirikure’s 2021 question: “Why is it that archaeology—a discipline that deals with human experience over the long term—is failing to achieve its potential in tackling global challenges?” (259). Schofield’s discussion and answer to this question reflects a view that is rather innovative, and it constitutes a watershed for archaeology.

Although, over the years, there have been quite a few book-length accounts of archaeology’s aims in society and how to reach them, Schofield takes leadership now and offers a new mission and direction for the entire team of Archaeologists. The take on archaeology advocated by Schofield, whose battle cry is “Archaeologists assemble!” (298), is not Marxist but it nevertheless is critical, in the sense that the discipline is meant to address some of the world’s most wicked problems such as climate change, environmental pollution, health and well-being, social justice, and conflict: archaeologists and heritage practitioners can help make the world a fairer, safer, and healthier place for everybody (299).

The volume presents a critical overview of where archaeology is positioned right now in relation to these wicked problems and how archaeologists could enhance their own contribution to solving them in the future. Schofield’s agenda is intellectual but in equal measure it is also about policy, leadership, social-planetary boundaries, and sustainable development goals (SDGs)… In his perspective, key terms that should guide archaeologists include transdisciplinary collaboration, the imagination, small wins, and policy entrepreneurship.

This is an agenda I like a lot, and it is close to my own approach to archaeology using labels such as ‘applied archaeology’ and ‘heritage futures’. As Schofield asks his student readers (302): how can archaeologists do more to persuade doubters that archaeology is central to helping understand and resolve many of the world’s greatest challenges? Is archaeology not about the past, but about the present and the future?

Cultural Heritage and Wellbeing

2022-03-24

 

As part of the EUniWell Open Lecture Series, Prof. Cornelius Holtorf presented on 24 March 2022 on

“Cultural Heritage, Well-being and the Future”

ABSTRACT

Cultural heritage is often assumed to be of timeless value. But over recent decades, cultural heritage has been fundamentally reconceptualised in global policies. Whereas for about two centuries, cultural heritage was usually appreciated as a tangible token of collective histories, usually connected to ideas linked to Romantic Nationalism, now we see a different paradigm gradually taken over: cultural heritage is increasingly valued in relation to the intangible impacts and uses it has for specific communities. In this context, the concept of wellbeing has become central, and I will give a few concrete examples what that means for cultural heritage. Taking this development even further, cultural heritage in global contexts is today most commonly addressed within the framework of sustainable development. Yet political bodies such as the UN and national governments (even those embracing wellbeing) are still locked into older perceptions and often fail to embrace fully the ‘new’ cultural heritage. The UNESCO Chair on Heritage Futures is contributing to changing this by focusing on how cultural heritage can best benefit future generations.

The lecture was recorded and will be available online soon.

Heritage and the Sustainable Development Goals

2021-03-17

Now published:

Labadi, Sophia, Francesca Giliberto, Ilaria Rosetti, Linda Shetabi, Ege Yildirim (2021). Heritage and the Sustainable Development Goals: Policy Guidance For Heritage And Development Actors. Paris: ICOMOS.

A remarkable document in many ways! Here is one interesting comment, for example (which may have been inspired by some of my comments on a draft version):

At the International Council on Monuments and Sites (ICOMOS), we strongly believe that heritage can play a key role in addressing the SDGs, but more work is needed to understand and address the potentials and challenges that link heritage to each Goal. The Policy Guidance document is the first step in addressing this gap. It illustrates where heritage can make a positive contribution and be leveraged by all actors in the heritage and development fields to improve policy and practice. It also addresses the challenge points where heritage practices might be at odds with sustainable development objectives, with the awareness that more in-depth studies and debates are called for in future outputs of the SDGs Working Group.

More research is needed indeed!

“Heritage And Our Sustainable Future”

2021-02-23

I am attending this week and next the digital conference “Heritage And Our Sustainable Future: Research, Practice, Policy and Impact“, organised by the UNESCO Commission for the UK and attended by an audience or more than 300 people from around the world. Ernesto Ottone (Assistant Director-General for Culture, UNESCO) contributed with an introductory note.

In a discussion on heritage in relation to disaster response and resilience, Joe King (ICCROM) agreed with my call for more ethnographic research on what heritage actually does in societies by suggesting that we need to build capacity among heritage managers to learn that heritage conservation is not always part of the solution in conflict situations but can also be part of the problem.

Similarly, Charlotte Andrews from Bermuda suggested that maybe the community could be asked what they want to be restored and what not, as there could be benefits from some destruction too, which we saw recently in the context of the Black Lives Matter movement.

The Future in Heritage Studies

2021-02-04

Cornelius Holtorf was invited to present a digital lunchtime seminar on “The Future in Heritage Studies and its Future” at the Cambridge Heritage Research Centre, University of Cambridge (4 February 2021).

For an audience of almost 70, Holtorf reviewed the significance of the future in heritage studies, arguing that the anticipated needs and benefits of heritage for specific future generations have very rarely been explicitly addressed or critically discussed. As heritage is increasingly linked to the Agenda 2030, the significance of the future in heritage studies becomes ever more important and a critical engagement with this notion and its meaning is urgently needed.

The UNESCO Chair om Heritage Futures at Linnaeus University attempts to make a difference in that respect by building global capacity for futures thinking among heritage professionals.