UNESCO

Chair on Heritage Futures

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/.

Forum Kulturarv

2021-11-09

Cornelius Holtorf and Helena Rydén represented the UNESCO Chair on Heritage Futures at the Cultural Heritage Forum “Cultural Heritage for the Future” held 8-9 November 2021 in Gothenburg, Sweden, and attended by 150 participants and 27 exhibitors.

Helena Rydén managed an exhibition displaying information about the Chair and samples of its publications and other work. Cornelius Holtorf held a one-hour plenary session on “We need to work more with the future in the cultural heritage sector!”, featuring a short lecture, two films, much interaction with the public, and a panel debate with Tina Lindström (Kalmar County Museum) and Johan Swahn (The Swedish NGO Office for Nuclear Waste Review, MKG). Together, we presented and discussed how the cultural heritage sector can work with the future and why this is important, with special examples taken from cultural heritage pedagogy (timetravelling to the future at Kalmar County Museum) and concerning long-term memory of repositories of nuclear waste. After the session, several participants described the experience as “an eye-opener”.

Review by Gilmara Benevides

2021-11-06

HOLTORF, Cornelius, HÖGBERG, Anders (eds.) Cultural Heritage and the Future. London/New York: Routledge, 2021.

Reviewed by Gilmara Benevides, PhD. Professor of Law at Faculdades Integradas do Ceará (UniFIC), Brazil. E-mail: gilmara.benevides@yahoo.com.br.

The field of Cultural Heritage Studies is vast, multidisciplinary and diversified. The issues are usually rooted in events that took place in the past and the interpretation of the consequences of these events in the present time. However, in the book Cultural Heritage and the Future, nineteen authors chosen among academics and experts in the areas of human and social sciences enter into the association between cultural heritage and the future, through different theoretical analyses on heritage management and conservation, archaeological theory and political archeology.

The preface and introduction are written by the book’s editors, archaeologists Cornelius Holtorf and Anders Högberg. Following on from the introduction “Cultural heritage as a futuristic field”, the book is divided into four sections: “The future in heritage studies and heritage management” (Section 1); “The future in cultural heritage” (Section 2); “Re-thinking heritage futures” (Section 3) and “Heritage and future-making” (Section 4). The book contains seventeen short chapters and ends with “Final Reflections: The Future of Heritage”. The book is designed to reach academics and students in the fields of cultural heritage studies, museums, archeology, anthropology, architecture, conservation, sociology, history and geography.

Despite bringing case studies from various parts of the world (Europe, China, Japan, North America, South Africa, Australia and others), the book is based on the scientific understanding of “cultural heritage” and the “future” as per the worldviews of mostly Western researchers, aware that their research will reach an academic audience that is largely found in the countries of the Global North (developed countries). Particularly, as a Brazilian historian, anthropologist and jurist who studies cultural heritage, I was interested in reading the book after learning that one of the book’s editors – Cornelius Holtorf – had published an article in Revista de Arqueologia, a scientific journal in Brazil and is known by renowned researchers in Brazil such as Rita Poloni and Pedro Funari.

Specifically, Rodney Harrison’s article, “Heritage practices as future-making practices”, on the Svalbard Global Seed Vault (SGSV) caught my attention. In my view, global food shortages are already an urgent problem for current generations. Here, in this study, it is possible to see that there is already some anticipatory seed storage strategy, whose ultimate goal is to maintain duplicates of seeds for the long-term conservation of a genetic bank of plants all over the planet. Brazil, a country known for its great natural wealth and biodiversity, has already sent three batches of seeds to the SGSV between 2014 and 2020.

On the other hand, it is clear that there are specific artifacts left behind that, despite being symbols of human futuristic progress, cause countless problems today that still do not have a long-term solution. For example: space junk, according to the discussion in “Future visions and the heritage of space: Nostalgia for infinity” – a very interesting dialogue between Alice Gorman and Sarah May. The excess of artifacts can go from being a cultural asset to being a disaster for the future.

In turn, nuclear waste is seen as a particular kind of cultural heritage of the future, as revealed by Cornelius Holtorf and Anders Högberg in “What lies ahead? Nuclear waste as cultural heritage of the future”. Radioactive heritage is also an object under analysis in “Radioactive heritage of the future: A legacy of risk”, by Marcos Buser, Abraham Van Luik, Roger Nelson and Cornelius Holtorf. In a very specific way, these two articles dialogue with each other and bring a warning about the dangers of this legacy for the next generations, although without imposing a tone of apocalyptic prediction. After all, no one can predict how future generations will manage this waste.

In the last chapter, “Final Thoughts: The Future of Heritage”, Anders Högberg and Cornelius Holtorf discuss the results of an earlier study in which they conducted more than 60 interviews with professionals in the cultural heritage sector. The study showed that professionals found it difficult to think about what kind of future they were working on. Instead, they held back in the present, in the short term, given the lack of opportunities to think about the future at a deeper level. They concluded that this difficulty stemmed from the lack of shared professional strategies on “how to deal with the future in heritage management or how to think about the future of heritage”.

As an alternative, Högberg and Holtorf present some possible strategies: the first is a way of applying “expiry dates” to future decisions about cultural heritage in the short, medium or long term. The second possible strategy focuses on “empowering future generations” in various ways.

As for the third possibility, it concerns the future of heritage and education. The idea of ​​creating a curriculum for cultural heritage specialists struck me as very interesting. I was completely ignorant of the idea of ​​“futures literacy ”, so I needed to get extra information about this concept, elaborated by Riel Miller.

The concept of “futures literacy” has been developed within UNESCO as one of the competences for the 21st century: “the universally accessible skill that builds on the innate human capacity to imagine the future, offers a clear, field tested solution to poverty-of-the-imagination.” The use of this concept seemed very adequate, with regard to the future of heritage and education.

Finally, it is possible to say that the book Cultural Heritage and the Future, despite bringing together intellectuals from different areas, has a considerable balance of ideas. Perhaps, in the near future, Anders Högberg and Cornelius Holtorf will feel the need to elaborate a new book, this time about the future of heritage post-2020, to think about the future of heritage from this new collective perspective.

Culture and cultural heritage@COP26

2021-11-02

Cornelius Holtorf attended parts or all of the following sessions organised during COP26 with relevance to culture and cultural heritage. His own agenda on these issues in relation to COP26 is available here.

1 Nov 2021

  • ARTS, HERITAGE, CULTURE: Reimagining our climate journey from knowledge to action (Opening of the Resilience Hub)

2 Nov 2021

  • A Culture of Resilience: Launch of the Climate Heritage Network Race to Resilience Campaign (part of the Resilience Hub). See here for a programmatic statement on this new campaign.
  • Climate Change Impacts on Cultural and Natural Heritage (part of the EU Pavilion events). This high-level meeting organised by the Government of Greece included, among others, Kyriakos Mitsotakis, Prime Minister of Greece, Audrey Azoulay, Director-General of UNESCO, Margaritas Schinas, Vice-President of the European Commission, John Kerry, Special Presidential Envoy for Climate at the U.S. Department of State, and government ministers of various states.
Audrey Azoulay, Director-General of UNESCO
Margaritas Schinas, Vice-President of the European Commission
John Kerry, Special Presidential Envoy for Climate at the U.S. Department of State

4 Nov 2021

  • The [uncertain] Four Seasons, concert performed via film and accessible both virtually and at Glasgow Caledonian University

5 Nov 2021

9 Nov 2021

  • Cultural Heritage, Resilience & the Built Environment: an intergenerational dialogue (part of the Resilience Hub)

11 Nov 2021

On balance, questions about culture and cultural heritage were probably more visible than at any other COP before – the result of a dedicated effort by many people and initiatives. At the same time, the way cultural heritage is discussed in relation to climate change has become much more sophisticated and relevant too, no longer mainly about heritage ending up under rising water levels…

Culture, cultural heritage and COP26

2021-11-01

As COP26 is starting in Glasgow, the important role of culture in people’s lives is still neglected.

Culture shapes how people make sense and therefore act in the world. Often, what people consider to be important in their lives is connected to cultural patterns derived from the past – their cultural heritage.

A world being remoulded through climate change calls for two issues to be addressed using the power of culture and cultural heritage:

  1. Humanity as a whole needs more solidarity worldwide, mutual trust, and comprehensive collaboration to address pressing global challenges.
  2. People on Earth and their societies will need a greater ability to adapt to new conditions and embrace change.

Culture and cultural heritage are the key to assist present and future generations in adapting to changing circumstances, together.

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

“What Does It Mean to Decolonize Heritage?” in SAPIENS magazine

2021-10-07

At the anthropology magazine SAPIENS, UNESCO Chair postdoctoral fellow Annalisa Bolin and David Nkusi, a heritage sites protection specialist at Rwanda Cultural Heritage Academy, write about their research in Nyanza District, a rural area of Rwanda. They examine the relationship between local communities and heritage resources in light of discussions about how to decolonize heritage management globally: “We need to be trusted with a sense of responsibility in the management of our heritage,” local leaders argued in the research, drawing on Rwandan philosophies of agaciro and kwigira (dignity and self-reliance). For more, visit SAPIENS here. 

Knowledge Cube

Knowledge Cube

Knowledge Cube exhibit: ‘Back to the Future’, UNESCO Chair on Heritage Futures at Linnaeus University

What can we know about the future? What or what different futures do we preserve cultural heritage for? How do we communicate with future generations?

These and other questions about how we communicate who we are and what we do are addressed in the exhibition Back to the Future in the Knowledge Cube at the University Library in Växjö. The basis of the exhibition is the research conducted within the UNESCO Chair on Heritage Futures, which was established at Linnaeus University in 2017.

Topics include world heritage and Öland2050, long-term communication on nuclear waste disposal sites, the Voyager space message, the picture book WOW! The Future is Calling! and the colouring book Archaeology Today.

The team of the UNESCO Chair on Heritage Futures is presented too. 

The exhibition opened on 4 October at 14.30 in Växjö by Cornelia Witthöft, our Deputy Vice Chancellor for research. 

The exhibition runs until spring 2022. 

News item

kunskapskuben

Exhibit: Back to the Future on the opening 4 October 2021, Knowledge Cube at the University Library in Växjö. From left: Kerstin Brodén, Tina Dahlgren, Cornelius Holtorf, Sofie Tunbrant, Helena Rydén, Cornelia Witthöft, Emma Rydnér.

Various activities July – September 2021

2021-09-30

Cornelius Holtorf reviewed in collaboration with Saranya Dharshini Karunanithi three global nominations for the 2022 World Monuments Watch (9 July 2021).

Cornelius Holtorf actively participated in two digital networking meetings during the international conference STREAMS – Transformative Environmental Humanities organised by KTH, Stockholm (3-6 August 2021). These meetings concerned “Environmental humanities and policy advice” (chaired by Sverker Sörlin) and “Imagining futures – science fiction and the environmental humanities” (chaired by Sabine Höhler), both were held on 3 August 2021.

Cornelius Holtorf presented on “Meta-Stories of Archaeology Revisited” for 15 graduate students attending this first event in a lecture series on Narrative and Storytelling in Archaeology, organised at the Amsterdam Centre for Ancient Studies and Archaeology (ACASA), University of Amsterdam, Netherlands (26 August 2021).

Cornelius Holtorf is a member of the Task Force of the European Association of Archaeologists (EAA) revising its Code of Practice and submitted specific suggestions to five sections of the new document (29 August 2021).

Cornelius Holtorf had an informal discussion with Julius Heinicke, holder of the UNESCO Chair in Cultural Policy for the Arts in Development at the University of Hildesheim, Germany. The aim was to learn about each other’s work and consider future collaborations in teaching and research (31 August 2021).

Cornelius Holtorf and Anders Högberg attended the digital Second Plenary of the Working Party on Information, Data and Knowledge Management at the Nuclear Energy Agency, OECD, Paris (1-2 September 2021).

Leila Papoli-Yazdi gave an invited lecture entitled “To exercise our freedom: How archaeology can reinforce the academic freedom” in the session “Whither European Archaeology?” at the digital Inter-Congress of the World Archaeology Congress (1 September 2021).

Cornelius Holtorf and Anders Högberg arranged and chaired a futures literacy workshop for participants in the project Post-Pandemic Tourism Development, funded by Kamprad Family Foundation (6 September 2021).

Cornelius Holtorf attended parts of the digital Kiel 2021 Summit on Social Archaeology of Climate Change (6 September 2021).

Cornelius Holtorf presented a virtual talk entitled “Nuclear waste disposal sites: innovative world heritage for the Anthropocene?” for 60 participants in a session on Making nuclear cultural heritage: an institutional challenge for the nuclear industry? at the 7th RICOMET conference on social science and humanities in ionising radiation research, organised from Budapest, Hungary (8 September 2021).

Cornelius Holtorf took part in a planning meeting with other members of the new Working Group on Heritage and Climate Change of the ICOMOS International Scientific Committee on Interpretation and Presentation of Cultural Heritage Sites, ICIP (9 September 2021).

Cornelius Holtorf participated actively in a round-table on “Applied Archaeology – New Directions for the Discipline in a Changing World” held at the virtual 26th Annual Meeting of the European Association of Archaeologists organised from Kiel, Germany (9 September 2021).

Cornelius Holtorf presented on priorities for future archaeological research in a round-table on “Horizon Europe: Addressing the Priorities” held at the virtual 26th Annual Meeting of the European Association of Archaeologists organised from Kiel, Germany (10 September 2021).

Cornelius Holtorf attended the virtual Annual Business Meeting of the European Association of Archaeologists and was elected as a member of the Nomination Committee 2021-2024 (10 September 2021).

Cornelius Holtorf presented a paper entitled “Post-Pandemic Tourism Development for the Long-Term” for an audience of 20 participants in a session on COVID-19: Assessing the Impact and Planning for a Different Future for Archaeological Heritage Tourism held at the virtual 26th Annual Meeting of the European Association of Archaeologists organised from Kiel, Germany (11 September 2021).

Cornelius Holtorf had an informal discussion with Hanna Schreiber, Assistant Professor at the Faculty of Political Science and International Studies, University of Warsaw, Poland, about future collaboration concerning the global management of intangible cultural heritage and the concept of heritage futures (14 September 2021).

Cornelius Holtorf participated in the second Responsible Futures Workshop, led by Ted Fuller, UNESCO Chair on Responsible Foresight for Sustainable Development, UK, and Fabrice Roubelat, UNESCO Chair in Foresight and International Strategic Intelligence, France, also attended by Lydia Garrido, UNESCO Chair on Sociocultural Anticipation and Resilience, Uruguay (15 September 2021).

Cornelius Holtorf ran a seminar on “The Archaeology of Growth” for 13 staff and students taking part in the archaeological training excavation at Gamla Skogsby, Öland, Sweden (23 September 2021).

Cornelius Holtorf participated together with 60 international experts in a virtual seminar on the draft White Paper on “Impacts, vulnerability and understanding risks” in the run-up to the International Co-Sponsored Meeting on Culture, Heritage and Climate Change (23 September 2021).

Cornelius Holtorf participated in the final meeting of a working group of 20 European experts writing a White Paper on “Cultural Heritage and Climate Change: New challenges and perspectives for research” in a joint initiative of JPI Cultural Heritage and JPI Climate (27 September 2021).

Cornelius Holtorf participated together with nearly 60 international experts in a virtual seminar on the draft White Paper on “Climate change and diverse knowledge systems” in the run-up to the International Co-Sponsored Meeting on Culture, Heritage and Climate Change (30 September 2021).

UNESCO Chair on Heritage Futures extended until 2025

2021-09-23

UNESCO and Linnaeus University have decided to renew the agreement on the UNESCO Chair on Heritage Futures for another four years, until 2025. Cornelius Holtorf, Professor of Archaeology, is the chairholder.

The UNESCO Chair on Heritage Futures was established at Linnaeus University in 2017. This is one of eight UNESCO Chairs in Sweden and the only one within the culture sector.

– We have four exciting years behind us and look forward to continuing the work. By now, we are well established, with a team of seven specializing in different areas, says Cornelius Holtorf.

Read more

Cornelius Holtorf; Peter Aronsson Linnaeus University

Cornelius Holtorf, holder of the UNESCO Chair on Heritage Futures and Peter Aronsson, Vice Chancellor at Linnaeus University