On the 16th of October 2025 ICCROM organized a workshop on Strategic Foresight in Heritage taking place in Rome, titled Anticipating Change: Exploring Long-term Futures for Heritage. The purpose of the workshop was to found a community for practice surrounding Strategic Foresight in heritage, to build resilience, relevance and agency among heritage organisations in the face of uncertainty and change.
Gustav Wollentz from the UNESCO Chair on Heritage Futures assisted in the organisation and facilitation of the workshop, contributing with a presentation on the value of Strategic Foresight in heritage and moderating parts of the agenda, which included both a hands-on Foresight exercise, the Futures Wheel, as well as a discussion on how to move forward together.
The goals of the newly established group are to:
Connect and amplify foresight and innovation efforts across the heritage sector.
Co-developing and testing foresight methods in real-world heritage contexts.
Building an open repository of trends, tools, and insights tailored to the sector’s needs.
Together vid ICCROM, the workshop gathered representatives from the International Council on Archives, ICOM (International Council of Museums), IFLA (International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions), NEMO (Network of European Museum Organizations), UNESCO, the French Ministry of Culture, the Swedish National Heritage Board, the Heritage Alliance, UK, the Fondation des Sciences du Patrimoine, France, the Getty Foundation, USA, and University College London, UK.
On Wednesday, 22 October, Anders Högberg was invited by the Norwegian National Heritage Board (Riksantikvaren) to give a presentation on Heritage Practices as Futures-Making Practices. The presentation was well received, and the subsequent discussion centred largely on the novelty of the future-oriented perspective that was introduced, as well as on how one might think in order to translate future-oriented ideas into more concrete heritage practices.
Anders Högberg, professor of Archaeology and member of the UNESCO Chair on Heritage Futures at Linnaeus University.
On 11 March 2011, Eastern Japan was hit by a triple disaster caused by the combination of the impacts of an earthquake, tsunami and nuclear meltdown. Many people lost their lives, their homes, or their livelihoods, and are still affected by the aftermath now.
Figure 1: Central area of the Disaster Memorial Park under construction in Futaba, Fukushima
Over fourteen years later, the region most affected is now covered by a plethora of topical museums, exhibitions, memorial stones, and even some largescale memorial parks that either opened over the last few years or are still under construction. They all do not only aim at recalling what happened but also intend to create a better future.
Figure 2: 3.11 Densho Road connecting disaster memorial facilities in Eastern Japan
I first explored the topic on an exploratory trip to Fukushima Prefecture (with Tomas Nilsson and Tom Holtorf) in spring 2023. Now I was able to return for some days in connection with a NEA (OECD) conference on Nuclear Waste Management I participated in in Yokohama. I could even spend two days in Miyagi Prefecture this time. I am more than ever convinced that Eastern Japan provides a good case for studying the role of cultural heritage in negotiating the relations between present and future societies, i.e. what we call heritage futures.
I found evidence that remembering the 3.11-Disaster related present and future societies in at least the following interrelating but different ways:
1. Restoring and continuing after hiatus
Restoring shrines and other cultural heritage to reconnect with the past for the future
Passing down memories and lessons of the disaster to protect lives around the world in the future, e.g. building higher seawalls and promoting tsunami alert response (e.g. memorial facilities along 3.11 Densho Road)
Expressing personal memories of the disaster to continue life
Revitalizing the region by promoting and rebuilding economic development, e.g. through high-tech and tourism (e.g. Great East Japan Earthquake and Nuclear Disaster Memorial Museum in Futaba)
2. Making up for past failure
Accepting apologies and accountability that come with the responsibility to make up for the damage (Tepco)
Honouring the victims forever (memorial stones)
3. Finding a better way forward
Increasing resilience by improving the human ability to embrace loss, change, transformation, adaptation and renewal in the future (e.g. inspired by Sakura, the reoccurring cherry blossoming)
Learning from the mistakes of modernity and capitalism to create a more sustainable society for the future.
4. Restarting and regenerating life
Partial forgetting of the disaster in order to move on with new life (e.g. resprouting of burned trees, see Figure 4)
Recovering from the disaster to regenerate our lives for the future refocusing human priorities (e.g. some eye-witness storytelling).
Figure 4: a tree outside Ishinomaki City Kadonowaki Elementary School burned by the disaster in 2011 but now resprouting with new life
In sum, preliminary outcomes of my fieldwork reveal how past, present, and future can be strongly interconnected: the way we tell the past in the present strongly correlates with our assumptions and anticipations of the future. This becomes particularly pertinent in the case of the 3.11.-Disaster which brought about extensive losses of lives and livelihoods, including entire town areas and much essential infrastructure.
The future we are building today in the aftermath of the disaster depends on how we describe and remember what actually happened, e.g. by constructing cultural heritage sites, as currently happens in the area affected by the 3.11 disaster along the Japanese East Coast. There are different ways of recalling the disaster and different futures following on from that. That is why cultural heritage is of great importance in future-making, and why heritage futures matter in the present.
Heritage Futures: Archaeological Insights for the Long-term Management of Radioactive Waste
Cornelius Holtorf, UNESCO Chair on Heritage Futures, Linnaeus University
Managing radioactive waste is a challenge that extends across many generations, requiring long-term safety measures. Archaeologists, like myself, are familiar with time scales of thousands of years as we seek to understand the distant past. A key part of our work involves questioning assumptions rooted in the present and learning to imagine past worlds that were vastly different from today. This is very difficult, but only after doing so can we draw meaningful insights from the past to inform the present. The same principles should apply when communicating information, knowledge, and guidance about radioactive waste repositories to societies of distant futures. This calls for a strengthened capacity in ‘futures literacy,’ a concept developed and promoted by UNESCO.
Futures literacy consists of three core dimensions: 1. Becoming aware of the assumptions we hold about the future, 2. Learning to imagine multiple alternative futures, and 3. Reframing the original issue and developing new strategies to address it.
In this paper, I explore this argument and discuss its implications for a long-term, safe and responsible management of radioactive waste. The paper is based on extensive research conducted by the UNESCO Chair on Heritage Futures at Linnaeus University in Kalmar, Sweden. The research has been carried out in collaboration with the radioactive waste sector in Sweden and internationally, including through participation in several expert groups of the NEA.
From the conference blurb (shortened): radioactive waste is produced in all phases of the nuclear fuel cycle and from the use of radioactive materials in industrial, medical, defence and research applications. After creation and use, many countries have a policy of interim storage, followed by permanent disposal underground in engineered repositories located in suitable geological formations. Significant quantities of data and information are generated throughout this lifecycle with many countries now exploring the concept of a digital safety case. The operational period of nuclear generation facilities often covers several decades, while disposal facilities are designed to operate for even longer. This raises significant challenges as these timeframes span multiple generations of workers and are likely to see many changes in policy and technology. Moreover, even after disposal, there is now a consensus on the importance of adopting strategies to preserve awareness of waste and disposal facility for long periods of time. The NEA Working Party on Information, Data and Knowledge Management (WP-IDKM) [to which Anders Högberg and Cornelius Holtorf belong] aims to co-ordinate these activities in a more holistic way, considering cross-disciplinary approaches and cognizant of all timescales of the information cycle.
The conference addressed “Challenges Across All Timescales”, from imminent expert retirement to one million years and more in the future. This is about Heritage Futures for real!
I presented the following paper:
Heritage Futures: Archaeological Insights for the Long-term Management of Radioactive Waste
Managing radioactive waste is a challenge that extends across many generations, requiring long-term safety measures. Archaeologists, like myself, are familiar with time scales of thousands of years as we seek to understand the distant past. A key part of our work involves questioning assumptions rooted in the present and learning to imagine past worlds that were vastly different from today. This is very difficult, but only after doing so can we draw meaningful insights from the past to inform the present. The same principles should apply when communicating information, knowledge, and guidance about radioactive waste repositories to societies of distant futures. This calls for a strengthened capacity in futures literacy,’ a concept developed and promoted by UNESCO. Futures literacy consists of three core dimensions: 1. Becoming aware of the assumptions we hold about the future, 2. Learning to imagine multiple alternative futures, and 3. Reframing the original issue and developing new strategies to address it. In this paper, I explore this argument and discuss its implications for a long-term, safe and responsible management of radioactive waste. The paper is based on extensive research conducted by the UNESCO Chair on Heritage Futures at Linnaeus University in Kalmar, Sweden. The research has been carried out in collaboration with the radioactive waste sector in Sweden and internationally, including through participation in several expert groups of the NEA.
Today, we started a joint project with the University’s Knowledge Environment for Sustainable Tourism (KEST) with A Round Table on Cultural Heritage and Sustainable Tourism (led by my colleague Marianna Strzelecka).
Some 20 participants from many regional organisations (Mörbylånga kommun, Region Kalmar län, Destination Kalmar, Länsstyrelsen Kalmar län, Kalmar läns museum, Ölands museum, Ölands turistbyrå, Karlskrona kommun och Linnéuniversitetet) discussed challenges under three headings:
1. Co-creating the Southern Öland landscape: How farmers, local communities, tourism actors, and other stakeholders can collaborate to sustain and benefit from the World Heritage landscape.
2. Mobilities to and within Öland: Exploring sustainable transportation options for visitors, residents, and goods while respecting the island’s unique cultural and natural values.
3. Managing local natural resources under pressure: Addressing challenges such as water availability and climate change impacts.
There was also one cross-cutting theme: Agricultural landscapes as pathways to peace and dialogue. How the Southern Öland heritage landscape can foster understanding, cooperation, and peaceful relations through shared stewardship of land and traditions.
The project will continue this autumn with student fieldwork and a joint futures workshop at the end. Exciting with local and regional collaborations!
MONDIACULT – UNESCO’s World Conference on Cultural Policies and Sustainable Development took place in Barcelona (29 Sept-1 Oct 2025). UNESCO is the United Nations organization that promotes cooperation in education, science, culture and communication to foster peace, security and sustainable development worldwide. “Culture of Peace” has long been one of UNESCO’s most memorable concepts.
With this in mind, it was surprising that at MONDIACULT there were Ministers of Culture that emphasized culture as the soul of a country and an expression of national freedom, the need for cultural preparedness in the face of military threats, and cultural policy as a form of survival, security and defence strategy, not the least because foreign forces are known to attack first the cultural fabric that binds societies together.
Such language is very different from the general commitment of all states not only to UNESCO as such, including its Culture of Peace programme, but also to cultural rights as a part of global human rights. The logic of war must not trump culture. As Alexandra Xanthaki, the UN Special Rapporteur for Cultural Rights, emphasized several times during the conference, cultural rights are about the rights of individuals and groups: they oblige states to implement the rights of minorities, marginalized people and migrants, among others, not to foster or support majority state culture. I would add that culture should not be what sustains people when everything else is taken away from them, but what prevents states or anybody from taking away everything from anyone in the first place.
Similarly surprising to me was that some of the discussions were still about protecting and preserving cultural heritage or returning it to their rightful owners. This is a perspective of culture as a valuable resource and property, something you don’t want to be deprived of as that would mean, according to some, that you lost your “heartbeat” and your past. This is a familiar view that is sometimes also taken regarding cultural heritage. But it chimes poorly with the many statements we heard during the conference that culture is primarily about our common humanity. Indeed, UNESCO’s very constitution from 1945 discusses culture in the context of a general human (and not the nations’) dignity.
There is one additional aspect to this. When some policy makers declared in Barcelona that culture must be safeguarded because “culture is who we are”, I partly disagree. In many respects, the world is not in a good state because of who we were, and are. Culture is also about who we would like to be, or perhaps become, as human beings on our shared planet. That is why it was disappointing to see that MONDIACULT 2025 did not take up the spirit of the 2024 United Nations Summit of the Future and improve on the recognition of culture in the Pact for the Future.
Today, humanity is at a time of profound global transformation, requiring us to change course so that we do not risk tipping into a future of persistent crisis and breakdown. But what exactly does this mean for cultural heritage which is the way in which we today recall the past? After all, as the Spanish Minister of Culture had it at MONDIACULT, “culture is where all changes begin” – it is about transformation, innovation and creativity. In other words, the question is not how to safeguard culture and heritage ahead of threats that may be anticipated in an uncertain future. One key question is rather how we make sense of the past in a world where the future is not what it used to be (as Marek Tamm once wrote). Culture has some of the answers: long-term thinking, embracing change, and understanding what it means to be human.
Finally, what is the way forward? Senior decision-makers emphasized on several occasions the need of evidence-based policy and the benefits of culture for meeting indicators of environmental, economic, and social development as well as for fostering national identities and even as an asset for national defence. But this does not fit very well to Pedro Sanchez, Prime Minister of Spain, declaring in his Opening Speech that “culture invites us to dream”. Similarly, Octavio Paz was quoted as saying that the world is a projection of our images and, one might add, of our narratives and worldviews. Others talked in this context about a holistic perspective we need to take—one that not the least integrates culture and nature. According to that view, we do not benefit from culture when it is part of a fragmented and siloed view of the world, sought to be instrumentalized for various purposes, and regularly assessed for its value, in particular its contribution to gross domestic product (GDP).
Instead, the kind of culture that gives us hope in the present time is what provides happiness and wellbeing for people. That is why we need to develop and implement measures of progress for human work that go beyond GDP. Culture can be the place where such change begins.
Cornelius Holtorf, UNESCO Chair on Heritage Futures, Linnaeus University, Kalmar, Sweden
Both events provided many opportunities to learn about current developments in global cultural policy and also to talk to other UNESCO Chairs, senior politicians, policy makers, and representatives of NGOs about various dimensions of heritage futures.
MONDIACULT attracted more than 100 Ministers of Culture and overall more than 1,200 participants from around the world.
Highlights included several brilliant presentations by Alexandra Xanthaki, the UN Special Rapporteur for Cultural Rights. She emphasized the responsibility of states for cultural rights of individuals and groups, while criticizing states caring only about majority cultures and marginalising minorities and people at the margin of society.
Another highlight was the launch av Version 1 for aCulture Goal av Culture2030Goal campaign. Such a goal is very strongly supported by the Ministers of Cultures, and policy makers attending MONDIACULT, as reflected in the Outcome Document. Also significant was the launch of the UNESCO Global Report on Cultural Policies. These documents are the basis for further discussions among various NGOs over he coming years and will serve to influence the UN member states in favour of giving culture a strong position on the Post-2030 Agenda.
(Figure shows the Swedish Delegation incl Secretary of State)
I was able to have many conversations on heritage futures (short and long!), and will be following up many of them, including with the following people:
Cornelius Holtorf contributed to the ICOMOS questionnaire entitled “A Spot on the Horizon: Reflecting on the Future of the Heritage Field and ICOMOS’ Role in It!” (1 August 2025).
Cornelius Holtorf had an informal meeting with Dr Paulius Jurčys of Prifina about creating an AI twin for the Chair on Heritage Futures (20 August 2025).
Cornelius Holtorf presented a talk entitled “Public Archaeology and the challenge of long-term communication lessons for nuclear waste management” in a session on “The Power of Public Archaeology to Tackle the Sustainable Development Goals” organised by Lenore Thompson and Veronica Testolini at the 31st Annual Meeting of the European Association of Archaeologists held online (4 September 2025).
Cornelius Holtorf held an informal background conversation with journalist Nicke Nordmark preparing a programme on communicating about repositories of nuclear waste for Swedish Radio “Morning on P1” (8 September 2025).
Cornelius Holtorf discussed the question “Can archaeology do harm in present society?” with a class in Ethical Dilemmas in Contemporary Anthropology taught by Professor Laura McAtackney at University College Cork, Ireland (10 September 2025).
Cornelius Holtorf had an informal meeting with Steven Hartman, Executive Director, UNESCO-MOST BRIDGES Coalition, about future collaborations (10 September 2025).
Cornelius Holtorf was interviewed about long-term communication regarding nuclear waste repositories on the national Swedish radio programme “Morning on P1” (22 September 2025).
Cornelius Holtorf was invited to present a talk on “Varför kultur och kulturarv ska tjäna fred och inte krig” for an audience of 60+ civil servants and politicians at a conference on Kultur- och fritidsområdets roll i kris och beredskapin Jönköping, Sweden (23 September).
Marcy Rockman, visiting researcher with the UNESCO Chair for Heritage Futures, spoke in a live-stream hosted by the climate action group We Don’t Have Time from Stockholm to NY Climate Week on September 24, 2025.
The event focused on the dismantling of climate change science in the US and what can be done broadly to rebuild trust and craft new paths of action. It began with Marcy describing the sequence of events that brought her to Sweden. She shared some of her experiences as lead for climate change and cultural heritage with the US National Park Service, a role that was dissolved under the first Trump administration, and then how capacity to do her subsequent work at the intersection of climate, heritage, and policy was decimated under the start of the second Trump term. She then noted her connections with the UNESCO Chair and how their successful application to the Swedish Research Council for a visiting researcher grant. She said, “I had to say no to giving a talk in Sweden and this turned into an opportunity to move to Sweden. I’m beyond heartsick at all that is happening in the US now, I also know I’m deeply lucky to be here.”
Maria Bergkvist, deputy director of Klimatklubben was also part of the event. Klimatklubben is an organization working to bring people together across Sweden to talk about climate change and take action together. Klimatklubben has started a new initiative organized around a study published earlier this year that found that a high percentage (greater than 75%) of people around the world want their governments to take more action in response to climate change, but a much smaller percentage talk about climate change with friends and family.
Although they came be part of the panel from different directions, both Marcy and Maria spoke about the power and importance of bringing people together locally and connecting with each other in a place, and that such gatherings and connections are essential to rebuilding trust and relationships. As well, Marcy found it encouraging that We Don’t Have Time and everyone involved considered research in heritage and the social science underlying the work of Klimatklubben to be essential parts of climate science and climate response.
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