UNESCO

Chair on Heritage Futures

Visit from Cyprus

2023-05-05

We have been visited by Vicky Karaiskou, UNESCO Chair on Visual Anticipation and Futures Literacy towards Visual Literacy at the Open University of Cyprus. Her Chair is part of UNESCO’s Futures Literacy network, which is the context where we first met.

She offered a lecture on Visual Literacy for our students in Archaeology and took part in an informal seminar with colleagues where we exchanged view on issues of mutual interest in regard to UNESCO, the future, interpreting heritage, and teaching in the digital age. 

(Here are we together with my colleague Peter Skoglund.)

PhD on heritage in urban planning

2023-04-21

Ulrika Söderström, PhD student in Archaeology at Linnaeus University and associated researcher at the UNESCO Chair on Heritage Futures, held on 21 April 2023 the final seminar (slutseminarium) ahead of her disputation expected to be held in the autumn. The seminar opponent was Björn Nilsson, Head of the Department of Cultural History at the University Museum of Bergen, Norway. 

Ulrika’s research is about archaeological heritage as a resource in socially sustainable urban development for the future. Her Doctoral research is supervised by Anders Högberg, with Cornelius Holtorf having responsibility as the internal examiner. Even Gustav Wollentz, another affiliated researcher of the UNESCO Chair, participated in the seminar.

Seminar opponent Björn Nilsson pointed among others to the relevance to Ulrika’s research of Johan Asplund’s work Theories about futures (Teorier om framtider, 1979), which was published in collaboration with the Swedish Committee for Future-Oriented Research.

Fieldwork in Fukushima

2023-04-18

Cornelius Holtorf undertook with his colleague Tomas Nilsson of the Faculty of Economics a week-long field visit to Tokyo and various places in the Prefecture of Fukushima investigating strategies of storytelling and remembering in relation to the threefold 2011 Eastern Japan-disaster, consisting of a major earthquake followed by a devastating tsunami and a large-scale evacuation in response to a nuclear meltdown of several reactors of the Fukushima Daiichi powerplant.

The tsunami reached up to second floor of this school (where all pupils and teachers survived)

Twelve years after the disaster, today the region of Fukushima is occupied with a comprehensive strategy of revitalization and remembering. We visited the main exhibitions and met representatives of Nuclear Waste Management Organization of Japan (NUMO), the Fukushima Innovation Coast Promotion Organization (FIPO), the University of Fukushima, and the Fukushima Prefecture Tourism & Local Products Association, among others.

Meeting with the Director of Tourism and some of his staff, Fukushima Prefecture

What struck me most was the general ambition to recover and revitalize what (even who!) was there before the disaster rather than embracing the transformations caused by it, while looking for new strategies of living and flourishing. Remembering the hardship of the community since 2011 but otherwise continuing to believe in modern progress based on technology and innovation seems to be the general idea here at the moment.

An extensive memorial park is currently being built in Futaba, including a huge mound with a chamber to commemorate the ca 4,000 who lost their lives here

The new protective measures built along the entire coastline provide safety for the new beginnings and are said to be able to withstand the height of tsunamis occurring once every 1000 years. Those structures are doubtless the most enduring legacy of the disaster.

The new coastal sea defenses. In the background the nuclear power station Fujushima Daini which could be prevented from meltdown.

Listening – important skill for the future

2023-04-17

Listening as an essential skill for future heritage practices

Diana Policarpo, Ciguatera [Installation], The Soul Expanding Ocean #4 [Exhibition]. Chiesa di San Lorenzo, Ocean Space, Venice. Seen on 30.04.2022.

Diana Policarpo, Ciguatera [Installation], The Soul Expanding Ocean #4 [Exhibition]. Chiesa di San Lorenzo, Ocean Space, Venice. Seen on 30.04.2022.

Ever since the elaboration of the UN Agenda for 2030 and its SDgs, and even more so since the elaboration of ICOMOS’ International Policy Guidance, cultural heritage has been advocated as an essential asset for tackling issues related to the climate crisis, with social challenges identified as part of this process. The International Day for Monuments and Sites (IDMS) offers the ideal setting for reflecting on which types of values attached to official heritage are suitable for designing the futures envisioned within these strategies. Or else, which hidden values might offer equal if not better support in designing these futures.

This year’s theme of the IDMS reflects on Heritage Changes and alternative sources of knowledge for welcoming our uncertain futures. It emphasizes Indigenous and traditional knowledge systems as valuable sources for finding solutions for meeting the SDGs and encourages heritage experts and institutions to open up dialogues at all levels of society and with other sectors in order to ensure representation in decision making processes with regards to the environment. 

This is a theme widely explored through the Panorama Platform within its Panorama Nature-Culture Community, which shares examples of good practices which seek to enhance the linkages between human communities and other-than-human communities and find solutions of co-existence and possibly flourishing together. Most of the explorations into these solutions are based on collaborations with Indigenous, traditional and local communities and the co-production of ecosystem management strategies, for ensuring the wellbeing of all types of communities and the conservation of heritage. When scrolling through the diverse case studies on the platform, one can come across approaches which touch upon diverse narratives which are usually woven into the “heritage for climate action” discourse: from indigenous healers engaged into actions aimed at saving tree species, to greening itineraries which lead to world heritage sites, to convincing people of the values of the conservation of their homes as an act of sustainability (just to name a few). Although all of these offer examples of action and therefore they create a sense of hopefulness, the common assumptions that seems to surface from these approaches, as well as those employed in similar actions in general,  are that:

  • Nature is an isolated object from ourselves, a realm to which we do not belong, and in need of our intervention in order to save it.
  • Indigenous Peoples and traditional communities are inherently willing to remain as they are (or as they are imagined) and offer solutions for environmental damages produced so far.
  • Cultural and Natural Heritage are static objects, which at best could be changed by bringing them into a state in which they were before (a “before” which is difficult to locate in time, although some might say “before the industrial revolution”).

This is not to say that such approaches are not useful in defining new models of interacting with our environments. Rather, these approaches touch upon the surface of the problem which lays at the heart of the current multiple crises we are experiencing. For tackling these, more powerful tools are needed which are able to decisively influence our very ways of envisioning ourselves as species within a broader context of an array of environments. Multispecies studies for example look at the multiple entanglements of livelihoods and of diverse communities of species and how these interact and influence each other, drawing also from Indigenous philosophies in this way. This might be an appropriate starting point for envisioning heritage practices as part of a management process of ecosystems and therefore bear in mind the impacts that our decisions related to heritage management have not just on humans but on other-than-humans as well. 

This becomes all the more important if we are to consider the power of heritage in shaping human values and behaviors and in defining our place in the world. In this case the following question arises: what is it that we bring with ourselves from our pasts that we would like to carry with us in the future? Reflecting upon the past in this case becomes not a nostalgic reflex, but rather identifying what it is that we’ve been carrying with us as societies. And in this sense, and keeping in mind the futures we envision for ourselves and for future generations, what is it that we might perhaps shed off as it will not be useful in these envisioned futures any longer? These are relevant reflections as we must acknowledge that, despite admirable efforts to slow down the rapid changes our worlds are undergoing, these changes in one form or another will happen and therefore the best we can do is to actually prepare. This means taking precautions, of course, but it also means that our very ways of relating to change, to uncertainty, to  our environments, must be steered towards acceptance and foresight equally. 

As much as we like to believe it, traditional knowledge is not static either. Surely if one were to document a traditional community across decades, they will notice changes in ways of perceiving and relating to the world, unless these lived completely isolated from other human communities (but even so might be influenced by changes in the rest of the environment). Too much tokenism has been expressed by outsiders in relation to Indigenous, traditional or local communities, and therefore when entering such a domain there is a need to proceed not just ethically, but also in attempts to establish genuine relationships in order to understand the other intimately. Too often, the sounding of these communities as sources of valuable knowledge for tackling the challenges we encounter is similar to that of careless extraction of resources from the rest of the environment. The first thing to keep in mind when seeking advice in such a context could be as simple as asking ourselves if these communities want to have anything to do with our actions. For this, heritage experts need to leave behind their desire to persuade people into values and actions and rather just listen.

Perhaps it all comes down to the simple act of listening carefully, to human worlds and other-than-human worlds as well. Not for replying, not for finding solutions, but just for the sake of listening. This is an act which heritage experts will need to acquire if they want to be prepared both for the changes within our worlds, and for the changing of the heritage sector as well. After all, when imagining diverse futures, we are in a position of envisioning different ways of relating to the past as well. 

Elena Maria Cautis

Elena Maria Cautis, PhD student

Elena Maria Cautis, PhD student with the Centre for Applied Heritage and the UNESCO Chair on Heritage Futures at Linnaeus University.

International Day for Monuments and Sites, ICOMOS

18 April is the International Day for Monuments and Sites, coordinated by ICOMOS. This year the theme is “Heritage Changes”.

WOW! The Future is Calling! 

Artist, teacher and curator Pernilla Frid guided a group of university administrators in Kalmar on the 30 March 2023, to talk about the art at Linnaeus University. The guided tour ended at the exhibition Back to the Future in the Knowledge Cube in Kalmar. The basis of the exhibition is the research conducted within the UNESCO Chair on Heritage Futures, and one part of the exhibition is devoted to the picture book WOW! The Future is Calling!

Pernilla showed us her contribution to the exhibition and talked enthusiastically about the characters, If, Wow and Try. She wanted us to understand that parts of these character traits can be found in all of us.

She explained to us that she when she was invited to apply her skills, she was immediately attracted to work in this context and with innovative concepts. The point is to convey the variety and richness in which we can engage with the future. The book behind gives many examples, both in the way the main characters act, representing three different ways of relating to the future, and in the many details, which surround them.

Thank you Pernilla for a lovely afternoon!

The book is available here https://issuu.com/lnu12/docs/wow 

Copyright © 2021. Text & illustrations: Pernilla Frid & Cornelius Holtorf. All rights reserved.

Pernilla Frid

Artist Pernilla Frid at the exhibition Back to the Future in the Knowledge Cube, Kalmar, Sweden.

 

Climate Change and Coastal Erosion

2023-04-06

Cornelius Holtorf was invited to Norwich in the UK to attend a British Academy-funded conference and expert workshop on Measuring Loss and Damage to Heritage from Climate Change for Effective Policy Reporting at the University of East Anglia (UEA).

Holtorf argued in favour of replacing the emphasis on ‘loss and damage’ with a stronger appreciation of the potential use of heritage for enhancing people’s well-being in the face of climate change and its implications. But another focus of the 2-day discussions was how to measure the loss of culture and heritage so that it can be included in high-level climate discussions.

Food heritage is partly intangible and selling points are mobile – a good thing when the coast is eroding rapidly.

The days of discussion were followed by an excursion to the coast of Norfolk to witness coastal erosion and get engaged in informal discussions on the mobility of cultural heritage and peoples’ lives under changing conditions.

 

Various activities January – March 2023

2023-03-31

Cornelius Holtorf joined the Swedish Foresight Network (Jan 2023).

“Här samlas vi som är verksamma inom framsyn, framtidsstudier, scenarioanalys och liknande inom näringsliv, akademi och offentlig sektor. Gruppen syftar till att lära av varandra, dela exempel och bygga relationer. Framtidsnätverkets syfte är att främja framtidskunnighet, det vill säga förmågan att enskilt och tillsammans med andra identifiera, analysera och använda sig av troliga, möjliga och önskvärda framtider. Framtidsnätverket uppnår detta syfte genom att skapa mötesplatser där offentliga, privata och ideella aktörer kan utforska, testa och dela erfarenheter om framsyn. På så sätt bidrar Framtidsnätverket till att stärka kapaciteten att proaktivt hantera framtida möjligheter och utmaningar på ett sätt som stärker resiliensen hos deltagande organisationer och samhället i stort.”

Cornelius Holtorf attended parts of the hybrid Symposium “The Future of Futures” to mark the retirement of UNESCO Chairholder Ted Fuller as Editor in Chief of Futures; the Journal of Interdisciplinary Study of Futures, Anticipation and Foreight, London, UK (25 Jan 2023).

As a member of the World Heritage Council, Cornelius Holtorf submitted suggestions for the Draft Management Plan 2023-2030 of the UNESCO World Heritage Property Agricultural Landscape of Southern Öland (29 Jan 2023).

Cornelius Holtorf held informal meetings discussing possible future collaboration with Martin Calnan, Chairholder at the UNESCO Chair for the Future of Finance, École des Ponts ParisTech in Paris (2 December 2022) and online (3 February 2023).

Cornelius Holtorf took place in a seminar on the historic environment and joint development of visitor destinations, held by the Governor of the County of Kronoberg in Växjö, Sweden (7 February 2023).

Cornelius Holtorf and Anders Högberg attended digitally the Third Plenary of the Working Party on Information, Data and Knowledge Management of the Nuclear Energy Agency, OECD, Paris (7-8 February 2023).

Cornelius Holtorf and Gustav Wollentz took part in a meeting with José Luiz Pedersoli and Alison Heritage representing the International Centre for the Study of the Preservation and Restoration of Cultural Property (ICCROM) to discuss future collaboration on heritage and foresight (13 February 2023).

Cornelius Holtorf took part in a seminar on Heritage and Identity in Times of War and Peace, organised by ICOMOS-UK (23 February 2023).

Cornelius Holtorf participated in a meeting of the network of Swedish UNESCO Chairs arranged by the Swedish National Commission for UNESCO (2 March 2023)

Cornelius Holtorf lectured on Designing Futures for 15 students in Design, reading a course on Design Processes and Methods focussing on Time at Linnaeus University, Campus Växjö (3 March 2022).

Cornelius Holtorf presented an invited lecture on “Conflict Resolution, Conflict Prevention and Cultural Heritage” for an audience of 100+ staff and students at the 29th Blanquerna Conference on Communication and International Relations entitled Global Challenges in an Uncertain World at Ramon Llull University, Barcelona, Spain (8 March 2023)

Cornelius Holtorf had an informal meeting discussing possible future collaboration with Onno Seroo, member of the UNESCO Chair in Education, Development and Technology, Ramon Llull University, Barcelona, Spain (8 March 2023).

Cornelius contributed to a UNESCO Survey on the contribution of UNESCO Chairs to Culture in emergencies, connected to the MONDIACULT 2022 declaration (16 March 2023).

Cornelius Holtorf participated in a regular World Heritage Council meeting for the World Heritage property Agricultural Landscape of Southern Öland representing Linnaeus University, held in Mörbylånga, Sweden (17 March 2023).

Cornelius Holtorf and Anders Högberg discussed, as part of a delegation of the Graduate School in Contract Archaeology (GRASCA) visiting the Swedish National Heritage Board in Stockholm, the future of contract archaeology in Sweden as well as future needs of research in cultural heritage, meeting Deputy Director, Susanne Thedéen, the Head of Research, Helena Victor, and the Head of the Department of Cultural Heritage Development, Eric Fugeläng  (28 March 2023).

Cornelius Holtorf met with Elene Negussie, World Heritage Coordinator at the Swedish National Heritage Board in Stockholm, to discuss the role of world heritage in relation to ongoing wars and conflicts and Sweden’s submission to the World Heritage Periodic Reporting Exercise (28 March 2023).

Cornelius Holtorf presented an invited lightning talk “The unfulfilled potential of heritage in the age of climate change” at the British Academy-funded conference on Measuring Loss and Damage to Heritage from Climate Change for Effective Policy Reporting at the University of East Anglia (UEA) in Norwich, UK (30 March 2023). He argued for an audience of ca 70 specialists and students for replacing the focus on ‘loss and damage’ with a stronger appreciation of the potential of heritage for people’s well-being in the face of climate change and its implications. 

Exploring Visual Literacy – Imag(in)ing

2023-03-30

After starting off the spring semester at the University, it was time for a Visual Literacy Workshop on Imag(in)ing the Future, run by Vicky Karaiskou, UNESCO Chair on Visual Anticipation and Futures Literacy, based at the Open University of Cyprus.

Vicky asked us to send her an image of the future before the workshop.

I did not know the purpose, was it to fire us all up before the workshop? Was I expected to talk about the image I had chosen? I decided to dive into the workshop with open eyes. I mean, what can go wrong?

We met on zoom on 13 March, almost all members of the Chair and some invited students and researchers. After some introductions, Vicky introduced us to the workshop.

Each of us presented one or two images of what the future meant to us. This was so interesting! So many different views, some about crossroads, some urban environments, some landscapes, and water, even cartoons and illustrations from children’s literature were there.

Vicky: You wake up in 2123. You have only one question you can ask to make sense of that strange world around you. Τhe question can only be answered with ‘yes’ or ‘no’. What would you ask? — Many of us asked basic questions like what I can eat, where is the toilet but questions of language, are we still human, which planet are we on, were also raised.

Vicky: Depict how you predict 2123 will look. Observe what is around you: how is the environment? How do cities & buildings look; what institutions exist; what about social relationships; behaviours; people’s looks; works; activities (what people do); values; ideologies; dominant trends? — This part of the workshop made us realize that we all have different expectations about the future, some negative, some positive.

When we had come this far in the workshop, I realized what we were doing. Vicky asked us to explore our underlying assumptions and emotions! The idea was to make us question and investigate these assumptions and emotions through the images and understand how the assumptions and emotions affect us.

At the end, we were asked to create a new question about the future starting with What if…? The questions were humble and included approaching other audiences, working globally, and expressing future visions through art. Before finishing the workshop, we were all asked to complete individually a sentence which started with the words: “In 2123, the future will mean…”.

The aim of the workshop was to open up new ideas. It certainly did!

After finishing, Vicky sent all of us a summary of our individual contributions. Her Chair partner, Sebastian Plate, used AI to summarize our contributions. Based on the answer to the last question and the input during the workshop, he made the AI capture this on my contribution:

Workshop Visual Literacy

Thank you, Vicky, for opening my eyes and for a creative workshop!

Helena Rydén, Assistant to the UNESCO Chair on Heritage Futures

AI om kulturarv och framtiden

2023-03-21

Anders Högberg ställde några relevanta frågor om ‘heritage futures’ till ChatGPT. Här är svaren:

 

Vilken eller vilka olika framtider bevarar vi kulturarv för?

Vi bevarar kulturarv för framtiden i allmänhet, oavsett vilken framtida värld vi ser framför oss. Kulturarvet är en del av vårt gemensamma kulturarv som vi är skyldiga att skydda, bevara och överföra till kommande generationer. Genom att bevara kulturarvet kan vi lära oss av vår historia och förstå vår kulturella identitet och utveckling.

Men det är också viktigt att erkänna att kulturarvets betydelse och relevans kan skilja sig åt beroende på vilken kontext och vilken framtid man talar om. Till exempel kan en framtid där teknologisk utveckling spelar en central roll kräva att vi bevarar digitalt kulturarv, medan en annan framtid där miljöhoten är avgörande kanske kräver att vi fokuserar på att bevara och återställa miljö- och naturarv.

Sammanfattningsvis bevarar vi kulturarv för framtiden i allmänhet, men hur vi definierar, bevarar och förvaltar kulturarvet kan variera beroende på den specifika framtiden och de utmaningar och möjligheter som den erbjuder.


Till vilken nytta? Hur kan vi avgöra vad som är bra för framtida generationer?

Bevarandet av kulturarv är viktigt av flera skäl, bland annat:

  • För att bevara vår historia och kulturella arv: Genom att bevara kulturarvet kan vi lära oss av vår historia och förstå vår kulturella identitet och utveckling. Kulturarvet ger oss också en känsla av samhörighet med vårt förflutna och vårt samhälle.
  • För att främja turism och ekonomisk utveckling: Kulturarvet kan också ha en ekonomisk betydelse genom att främja turism och skapa arbetstillfällen inom området.
  • För att främja utbildning och forskning: Kulturarvet kan användas som en resurs för utbildning och forskning, vilket kan leda till nya upptäckter och förståelse.

När det gäller att avgöra vad som är bra för framtida generationer finns det ingen enkel formel. Det är viktigt att ta hänsyn till flera faktorer, inklusive den kulturella, sociala, ekonomiska och miljömässiga kontexten för framtida generationer.

En viktig del av att avgöra vad som är bra för framtida generationer är att ta hänsyn till deras intressen och behov. Det är också viktigt att vara medveten om de potentiella konsekvenserna av våra handlingar för framtida generationer och för miljön.

Det är också viktigt att involvera framtida generationer i beslutsprocessen och ge dem en röst i frågor som rör deras framtid. På så sätt kan vi göra vårt bästa för att ta hänsyn till deras perspektiv och intressen och säkerställa att vi lämnar en värld som är hållbar och rättvis för alla.


Hur kan vi globalt öka framtidskompetensen (”futures literacy”) för de som arbetar i kulturarvssektorn?

Att öka framtidskompetensen (“futures literacy”) för de som arbetar inom kulturarvssektorn är viktigt för att säkerställa att vi bevarar och förvaltar kulturarvet på ett hållbart och relevant sätt för framtida generationer. Här är några sätt som kan hjälpa till att öka framtidskompetensen inom kulturarvssektorn:

  • Uppmuntra till tvärvetenskapliga samarbeten: Ett sätt att öka framtidskompetensen inom kulturarvssektorn är att uppmuntra till samarbeten mellan kulturarvsorganisationer och andra branscher, såsom teknologi, miljö och sociala innovationer. Genom att samarbeta med experter inom andra områden kan kulturarvssektorn lära sig om nya teknologier, trender och innovationer som kan vara relevanta för framtiden.
  • Skapa forum för dialog och diskussion: Skapa forum där professionella inom kulturarvssektorn kan träffas och diskutera framtida trender och utmaningar. Dessa forum kan fungera som en plattform för att utbyta idéer, erfarenheter och insikter om hur man kan anpassa sig till framtida förändringar.
  • Utbilda personalen: En annan viktig faktor för att öka framtidskompetensen inom kulturarvssektorn är att utbilda personalen om framtidsinriktade verktyg, metoder och tekniker. Utbildning kan inkludera workshops, seminarier, onlinekurser och andra former av professionell utveckling.
  • Skapa en kultur av innovation och förändring: För att öka framtidskompetensen inom kulturarvssektorn är det också viktigt att skapa en kultur av innovation och förändring. Detta kan innebära att uppmuntra personalen att utforska nya idéer och tillvägagångssätt, att uppmuntra till experiment och att ta risker i arbetet.
  • Använd framtidsverktyg och metoder: Slutligen kan kulturarvsorganisationer använda framtidsverktyg och metoder som scenarioplanering, trendanalys och framtidsforskning för att förstå framtida trender och förbereda sig för framtida utmaningar.

Genom att ta en helhetsapproach som inkluderar tvärvetenskapliga samarbeten, utbildning, dialog och användning av framtidsverktyg och metoder, kan vi öka framtidskompetensen inom kulturarvssektorn och säkerställa att kulturarvet bevaras och förvaltas på ett hållbart och relevant sätt för framtida generationer.