This video was submitted in November 2022 by Ulrika Stevens. Thank you for your submission!

Keywords:
London; housing; community; benefitsociety; affordable

This video was submitted in November 2022 by Ulrika Stevens. Thank you for your submission!

A community owned former factory is redeveloped into a collective by its tenants. In this interview, we take a look at how various business concepts can be combined to ensure diversity in urban centers.

Keywords:Berlin; innovation; business; community; collective

This video was submitted in November 2022 by Ulrika Stevens. Thank you for your submission!

Largo Residências is a cooperative hotel and hostel in Lisbon. The organization is active vla cultural events and social services that have been transforming the neighborhood. In this interview, we take a look at how a cultural venue can act as a mediator between local initiatives and political forces to play a key role in bringing affordable housing and tourism regulations to the forefront.

Keywords:
Lisbon; residence; tourism; community; socialaction

This video was submitted in November 2022 by Luis Anthony Saavedra Medina.Thank you for your submission!

LA IMPORTANCIA DE CONSERVAR NUESTRO PATRIMONIO HISTORICO DE PIURA.

AUTORES: GUERRERO ZURITA, Bileyvi Abigail. MACHARE ZAPATA, Ethel Alejandra. RAMÍREZ CASTILLO, Génesis Daniela. SAAVEDRA MEDINA, Luis Anthony. VARGAS OLEMAR, Manuel

Keywords: RESTAURACIÓN, CONSERVACIÓN, HISTORIA, IDENTIDAD y PROBLEMATICA

This video was submitted in November 2022 by Tamara Winkhardt-Möglich. Thank you for your submission Ms Menzies!

The Town of Bamberg was inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List in 1993 due to its medieval layout and its very well-preserved historic buildings. The Market Gardeners’ District with its inner-city cultivated areas is an integral part of the World Heritage Site. Urban horticulture has been practised here since the Middle Ages, right up to the present day.

Commercial horticulture has declined sharply in recent decades. As a result, large parts of the inner-city open space structures have fallen out of use. At the same time, new models of use such as self-harvest gardens and solidarity farming projects have emerged and historic liquorice cultivation revived. Old crops that are ideally adapted to Bamberg's climate and soil use being preserved for the future in a variety garden.

In several families, the next generation has now taken over the horticultural business. Some of these young people even have a seat on the city council to ensure that the interests of the gardeners get a hearing in the political arena.

Urban gardening is not a new trend in Bamberg, but looks back on centuries of tradition. The knowledge of growing and harvesting crops as well as seed propagation is passing down from generation to generation. This knowledge and skill is so valuable that it was included in the National Register of Intangible Cultural Heritage in 2016.

More info at https://welterbe.bamberg.de/en/.

This video was submitted in November 2022 by Manolis Klontzas. Thank you for your submission Mr. Klontzas!

Keywords:
Heritage protection; Local communities and heritage; Cultural landscape; Destruction of monuments; Anthropocene and heritage

This video was submitted in November 2022 by Aruna Bagchee

Thank you for your submission Ms Bagchee!

Keywords:

Community, Vernacular, Traditional, , culture, Heritage

This video was submitted in November 2022 by Diane Menzies (Rongowhakaata Iwi) speaking with Damien Bell (Gundithmara).

Keywords:
story, land, people, connection, place

Turanganui-a-Kiwa, the harbour of Gisborne on the east coast of Te Ika-a-Maui, the North island of Aotearoa New Zealand connects this important place with the voyaging canoes from Te Moananui-a-Kiwa, the Pacific. The landfall of several canoes, whose stories are well known, such as the Horouta, the area is fertile, has been cared for since the 1300’s and is the home of Rongowhakaata. Their heritage is the land where tall forest trees grew in the well-watered soils, and where exemplary carving produced a house which has been the central exhibit of Aotearoa’s Museum Te Papa, having been previously stolen by the government. My Rongowhakaata heriatge is the stories, the land, the arts and the connections to the people through evenbts and genealogy. With currents threats to this heritage as across Aotearoa New Zealand of biodiversity loss, climate change and the degradation of water quality, Rongowhakaata iwi are working to restore riparian planting to stabilise river banks and the foreshore as well as develop advanced skills in landscape management.

This webinar is devoted to the issues of observing and developing sustainable tourism in the heritage site, using digital data produced by tourism activity or by visitors themselves on social networks. The challenge is to build a smart destination, for the benefit of the preservation and enhancement of the cultural sites. This involves the observation and knowledge of the mobility of visitors, their tourist experience and their interpretations of heritage, both from a qualitative and quantitative point of view, by collecting data in situ (wifi, sensors) and online (webscraping, etc.), to inform decision-making concerning tourism, but also to promote practices and policies that integrate these data.

Some 200 draft recommendations for various target groups (national and local governments; UN organisations/agencies, World Heritage Committee, UNESCO, Advisory Bodies (ICOMOS, IUCN & ICCROM), NGOs, local inhabitant associations, universities/research institutes, tourism industry etc.), have been gathered from around the world through the UNESCO-UNITWIN Network on Culture, Tourism and Development, which called for policy recommendations on how tourism and heritage conservation can contribute to the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals. The 3-part event organized on February 1st, 8th and15th, aims at discussing a series of recommendations that have been suggested by different academics and stakeholders on new approaches concerning tourism to WH sites to benchmark better standards for other heritage sites.

This webinar makes more particularly reference to several recommendations:

11. SPATIAL PLANNING AND DESIGN GUIDELINES (SDG#11)

13. TOURISM AND QUALITY EDUCATION (SDG # 4)

21. TECHNOLOGIES FOR SPATIAL MONITORING OF TOURISM

Organised with: Carmelo Ignaccolo (MIT) and Sébastien Jacquot (Paris & Panthéon-Sorbonne)

Moderator:
Lorenzo Cantoni, Università della Svizzera italiana, Switzerland (USI)

PROGRAMME

Maria Gravari-Barbas : Introduction
Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne University

Carmelo Ignaccolo: ‘Big data and data visualization techniques for tourism monitoring in Venice’.
Recent advances in computation and big data techniques have enabled major break- throughs that have changed the way many of us live, navigate, and experience the built environment of our cities. This is particularly true in major tourist destinations, such as the city of Venice, where the rise of the sharing economy in the tourism sector has impacted both the retail system and the housing stock. By leveraging data collected from TripAdvisor, AirDNA and Google, the research project “Unmasking tourism in Venice” narrates the spatial implications of overtourism in Venice’s historic center at a granular level. The scope of this project is twofold: it generates a “Tourism Index” to map clusters of tourism-related activities and it demonstrates how specific urban form conditions are more prone to overtourism.

Gael Chareyron – Sébastien Jacquot : ‘Digital data for knowledge of tourism in cultural sites’
Tourist observation now integrates data from social networks and digital practices, for the purpose of understanding the profiles, mobility and experiences of visitors. The challenge is to understand the place of cultural sites within tourist destinations, through the relationships with other sites, and the way in which visitor practices build tourist and heritage complexes, on variable scales. We also question the integration of these data in site management.

Sébastien Jacquot – Gael Chareyron : ‘Interpretation from below? Analysing online tourist comments to identify the image and interpretations of heritage’
Platform capitalism is also an economy of recommendation. Tourists become prescribers through their comments, generating visibility for heritage sites. In the past, an agreement between the World Heritage Centre and TripAdvisor aimed to use these recommendations for heritage monitoring purposes. This idea can be pursued, by asking whether the analysis of the comments can be a way to identify the relationship of tourists to heritage, through the way they restitute their experiences and thus enrich the site’s interpretations, from below, bringing out new values or ways of characterizing a tourist destination. Thus, the analysis of these micro narratives on the heritage left by visitors and inhabitants may reveal a plurality of interpretations.

Sairi Piñeros: ‘Tourism practices and big data in World Heritage Sites’
In World Heritage sites, the statistics to studying tourism are typically the following: international arrivals, domestic mobility, occupancy in the accommodation sector, surveys on tourist attractions entrances (museums, parks) or random questionnaires about a specific topic. This data is often a little part of tourism activity and cannot show tourists’ practices, in this case, in word heritage sites. Nowadays, the new technologies, Internet and mobile communications allow tourists to share their experiences easy and fast. Tourists broadcast their pictures, videos, stories and anecdotes through websites such as sites to sharing pictures (Instagram), blogs, forums, travelers’ communities (TripAdvisor) and social networks (Facebook, Twitter and so on). This presentation explains how digital footprints, left by tourists on Internet, may provide valuable information to analyze tourism practices in word heritage sites.

Lorenzo Cantoni: ‘eLearning and MOOCs for tourism. Before and beyond the pandemic’
Digital transformation of tourism has very direct connections with the educational field, in particular when it comes to the training of tourism professionals, with the goal of ensuring SDG4 – Quality Education. In particular, tourism professionals should be equipped with relevant and updated knowledge and skills about eTourism, so to operate in effective and efficient ways and to make the best of (big) data, becoming able to collect and analyse them, as well as to take wise managerial and strategic decisions. Moreover, digital technologies should be considered not only topics to be studied, but also tools that help promoting learning experiences. Because of the pandemic, the need for professionals to learn at a distance in very flexible ways has become cristal clear.

PANELISTS

Lorenzo Cantoni is professor at USI – Università della Svizzera italiana (Lugano, Switzerland), Faculty of Communication, Culture and Society, where he is director of the Institute of Digital Technologies for Communication. He is chair-holder of the UNESCO chair in ICT to develop and promote sustainable tourism in World Heritage Sites, established at USI in 2013; in the years 2014-17 he has been President of IFITT – International Federation for IT in Travel and Tourism. He is USI’s Pro-rector for Education and Students’ experience, vice-director of the Master in International Tourism and director of the Master in Digital Fashion Communication, done in collaboration with the Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne.

Gaël Chareyron defended his Ph D. degree in computer science and image processing at the Uni- versity Jean Monnet (Saint-Etienne, France) in 2005. He is Dean of Computer Science and head of Master in Data & Artificial Intelligence at ESILV, Paris and member of De Vinci Research Center (DVRC) in digital group. Since 2010 he is associate researcher at EIREST, Paris Panthéon-Sorbonne. His research topics include multimedia and security, computer vision, Big Data & data mining, social media & tourism.

Carmelo Ignaccolo is a Ph.D. Candidate in City Design and Development at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (DUSP) and an Adj. Faculty of Digital Techniques for Urban Design at Columbia University GSAPP. His academic work employs urban analytics and mapping techniques to analyze the urban morphology of historic cities and to investigate how the built environment affects human cognition and behavior. Prior to MIT, Carmelo worked as an Urban Planner at the Urban Planning and Design Lab of the United Nations Habitat Programme in Nairobi and as an Urban Designer at AECOM in New York City. Carmelo’s work has been exhibited in several international venues, such as the Seoul Architecture Biennale (2019) and at the Bi-City Shenzhen Biennale of UrbanismArchitecture (2020).

Sébastien Jacquot is a lecturer (Maître de conférences) in geography at University Paris 1 Panthéon Sorbonne (IREST). He is Director of IREST (Institut de Recherches et d’Etudes Supérieures en Tourisme). He is a member of the EA EIREST interdisciplinary research team in tourism, and an associate member of the UMR PRODIG. He is co-responsible for the Heritage Working Group of the Labex Dynamite, member of the UNITWIN network attached to the UNESCO Chair Culture, Tourism, Development (U. Paris 1 Panthéon Sorbonne). His research is in line with social and urban geography, and focuses on heritage policies, World Heritage and intangible heritage, tourism and digital social networks, tourism observation, metropolitan tourism, heritage from below. He has carried out surveys on remembrance tourism, wine tourism, links between informality and tourism.

Sairi Tatiana Piñeros holds a PhD in geography at the Panthéon-Sorbonne University. She started her studies in geography at the National University of Colombia. She has a Master in Geography of Emerging and Developing Countries (Paris 7 University) and Master in Tourism, Environment, Heritage (Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne University). She is currently a research professor at the Externado de Colombia University. Since 2020, she has been an associate researcher at EIREST, Paris Panthéon-Sor- bonne. Her research interests include tourism practices, geographical and tourism imaginaries, perception of space, urban changes, numerical traces, BigData Community-based tourism.

RAPPORTEUR:

Christina Cameron held the Canada Research Chair in Built Heritage at the University of Montreal from 2005 to 2019 where she directed a research program on heritage conservation. She previously served as a heritage executive with Parks Canada for more than thirty-five years. She has worked with the World Heritage Convention since 1987, chairing the Committee in 1990 and 2008 and co-authoring Many Voices, One Vision: The Early Years of the World Heritage Convention (2013).

INTRODUCTIONS

Maria Gravari-Barbas has a degree in Architecture and Urban Design (University of Athens, 1985) and a PhD in Geography and Planning (Paris IV – Sorbonne, 1991). She is the Director of the EIREST, a multidisciplinary research team dedicated to tourism studies, with main focus on cultural heritage, development, and urban-tourism evolutions. Since 2009 she is the director of the UNESCO Chair of Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne University and the coordinator of the UNITWIN network ‘Tourism, Culture, Development’. She is the author of several books and papers related to Tourism, Culture and Heritage. She currently is the Chait of the UNA Europa Alliance (https://www.una-europa.eu/) Steering Committee for Cultural heritage, and the convenor of the tourism theme of OurWorldHeritage initiative.

TOPIC

From 1972 until today the world has changed profoundly with climate change, and civil society increasingly empowered and connected through social networks. New decentralized and democratic models of governance have enabled wider distribution of natural and cultural heritage on the UNESCO World Heritage list. While these globally exceptional sites have universal value, local and regional heritage is important as an essential for people and communities. This heritage links communities throughout the planet through places rich with identity and meaning.

To this heritage framework, we add the 17 UN Sustainable Development Goals and 169 targets as a central issue for public policy, personal action and adoption at all scales of government. Heritage is a great articulator of sustainability: social; environmental; and economic; that cross, in a transversal way, all 17 UNSDGs toward achieving the 2030 Agenda.

This panel proposes to demonstrate how natural and cultural heritage, essentially democratic and inclusive, is a key elements and contributor to economic, social, environmental and cultural innovation. Heritage contributes to global agendas for a sustainable life in community and in symbiosis with the broader territory.

SPEAKERS

Lukasz Madrzynski (孟巨石), (Co-founder and General Manager of Wild Mountain Education Consulting Ltd.) – representing Wild Mountain Education Consulting Ltd. (杉野自然) (China) TBC

Sibongile Masuku (South African National Commission for UNESCO) and Soul Shava (Environmental education professor at University of South Africa) – representing the African World Heritage Fund

Juan Carlos Barrientos García (Coordinator of Educational Programmes at European Heritage Volunteers) – representing European Heritage Volunteers

Meetali Gupta (student of World Heritage Studies at the Technical University Brandenburg (Germany) – representing European Student Association for Cultural Heritage

Luis Hernández (Inter American Development Bank collaborator) – representing Living heritage Program (Chile)

Karin Kardenas (Unidad de Patrimonio de Chillan) – representing Local Government for Heritage (Chile)

Cristian Heinsen (Altiplano Foundation and the Sarañani! – Let’s walk) – representing the School of Conservation (Chile)

TOPIC

This session explores alternative methods of raising awareness to global heritage. The current listing procedures are caught in the politics of nation-states and reflect their power to canonize heritage. We seek instead an active engine that perpetually identifies meaningful sites for people around the world. This session turns to architectural pedagogy and new areas and modes of documentation to seek knowledge that goes beyond the boundaries of the state and constantly challenge and expand the list of heritage sites, and consequently, the histories they conjure.

We aim focusing on the acts of observing, inquiring, and networking that are necessary to identify sites that are constituted as historical resources, that are recognized as carrying attributes that amount to cultural heritage. The session raises questions about the potential of innovative documentation techniques and global histories networks to constantly identify new inventory of sites that escape institutional attention as a result of neglect, conflict, poverty and racism.

MODERATOR: Prof. Alona Nitzan-Shiftan - Associate Professor of history and theory at the Technion, Israel Institute of Technology.

SPEAKERS

Prof. Uta Pottgiesser - Professor of Heritage & Technology in the Faculty of Architecture and the Built Environment, Delft University of Technology.

Prof. Mark Jarzombek - Professor of the History and Theory of Architecture in MIT.

Prof. Stephen Fai - Director the Carleton Immersive Media Studio (CIMS) at Carleton University Research Centre (CURC).

Katie Graham - Ph.D. candidate in the Azrieli School of Architecture and Urbanism in the Faculty of Engineering and Design, Carleton University, Canada

Conveners: Mr. Divay Gupta, Ms. Deepti Sharma, Ms. Nimmy Nimrata

TOPIC

The People’s List & Beyond: A Participatory Approach to Heritage Conservation in Asia-Pacific Region

The convention has been hugely impacted due to the incomprehensive nature of the World Heritage list, thereby also barring creation of holistic framework policies. This creates a dire need to relook at the listing process and identify the lacunae in order to create a lens of equity for all sites of significance, which otherwise stay neglected. This webinar is an initiative to start such discussion and bring forth experts from the Eastern part of the world to share experiences in creating a balance between the identified and the un-identified heritage sites. The webinar is focused on discussing the roles and incentives for the civil society in identification, protection and management of heritage through a dynamic listing process (WH List+ Tentative List+ the Inventory). This is a 2-hour webinar divided into 3 sub-themes:

Listing as a Protection Tool: The talk will explore INTACH’s integrated approach to list the built, natural and intangible heritage of India and how INTACH is using listing as a tool for protection of heritage.

Diverse Conservation Approaches: Based on traditional practices, variations can be seen in conservation approaches adopted in different parts of the globe. The concept of Authenticity also varies. Therefore, the discussion will be focused on exploring these variations, in the case of Nepal.

Looking Within & Beyond the List: Within the nomination process, there is a comparative analysis process in which several national or regional sites are identified to present the statement of significance. Such sites can form a ready list and the possibilities will be explored in this talk.

The above talks will be followed by panel discussion amongst the panelists and the participants.

PROGRAM

Welcome Note by Michael Turner

Introduction by K.T. Ravindran

MODERATOR: Divay Gupta

PANELISTS

Mrs Vijaya Amujure, INTACH (India) – conservation architect
Topic: Listing as a Protection Tool (incl. Danger list)

Neel Kamal Chapagain (Nepal) – Associate Professor and the Director of Centre for Heritage Management at Ahmedabad University in India.
Topic: Diverse Conservation Approaches

Sharif Shams Imon (Bangladesh/Macao)
Topic: Looking Within and Beyond the List

Hyeseung Shim (Korea) – Digital Heritage Lab and is a PhD candidate in KAIST.

SUBJECT

The Beyond the List exploration is rooted in understanding the list. We may think of the World Heritage List as static, but it is constantly evolving. Over the past 49 years properties of various types and categories have come forward and been inscribed. In this session we will explore that evolution highlighting specific trends and opportunities, particularly toward a balanced and defensible list. With World Heritage Convention approval in 1972, questions began to be raised in the early 1990s about the types and diversity of properties listed, leading the World Heritage Committee to develop reports, hold meetings and frame a global strategy toward representations. A 2004 report by ICOMOS titled the World Heritage List: Filling the Gaps – an Action Plan for the Future, An Analysis, urgently needs re-evaluation. Today 194 states parties have signed the World Heritage Convention while 27 of those have no properties inscribed and 3 states parties have 50+ listings. These are numbers, but what do they tell us about a balanced list?

Exploring the listed properties today, we find various important vectors. For example, indigenous as a search term reveals the peoples and environments that are vessels of bio-cultural diversity. Testing in another direction, the early dominance of Christianity is viewed against the rise in a diversity of religious sites.

State Party Tentative Lists, that set forth about ten projected years of nominations, are perhaps the most influential vehicle forming the future list. The Tentative List process can be top down from governments, bottom up arising from potential property owners and stewards and civil society, or integrated by local and regional desires and heritage scholarship. Examples will reveal historic and more recent drafting processes.

Join us for presentations and discussion of the evolution, status, and next steps for the World Heritage List. Take part in our Instagram surveys this month, and nominate sites that you believe have unique values to be shared by all.

PROGRAM

Maaike Goedkoop - Introduction

Patricia O’Donnell - OWH Board, ISCCL (ISCCL= ICOMOS IFLA International Scientific Committee on Cultural Landscapes)

Gregory De Vries - Heritage Landscapes, ISCCL

Shikha Jain - Dronah, ISCCL

Christina Cameron - University of Montreal

Heritage is a complex term that embraces a huge range of tangible and intangible values including its meanings that gives its unique character and sense of place. The values that people assign to places are not static; they change gradually over time following socio-economic changes or rapidly because of conflict, war, or natural disasters. The process of assessing the values follows an international system as well as local. However, changing meanings has an impact on the integrity, authenticity, and management of heritage. The plurality of place meaning requires employing various methods and tools for mapping and interpreting these meanings, such as community consultation, stakeholders’ workshops, digital tools, the internet, crowd sourcing, social media…. etc.

The present associate theme on ‘changing meaning’ will explore various methods that are used to assess and map out the meaning and/or sense of heritage places and their changes. It will explore how digital technologies make it possible to map out heritage meanings for civil society (including youth), the various local and international stakeholders alongside the national presentation by States Parties. Through a webinar, we will also explore how new meanings and associated values can be incorporated into the recognized Outstanding Universal Value of existing World Heritage properties.

EXPECTED OUTCOME

The organizers are keen to invite various examples from different regions, with a focus on good practice in how to map and assess the meaning of heritage place beyond the official designation, and engage in dialogue with a variety of stakeholders from different regions. The outcomes of this dialogue will be a set of recommendation that will inform an inclusive place-making process as well as the decision-making in heritage management. It will also hopefully influence the World Heritage Committee and its advisory bodies to adopt more flexible approaches to the redefinition of the Outstanding Universal Value of existing World Heritage properties.

SESSION ORGANISERS

Christopher Young - Heritage Consultant and former Head of International Advice at English Heritage.

Hiba Alkhalaf - Postdoctoral Research Associate, The Department of Classics at King’s College London.

PROGRAM & SPEAKERS

1. Aleppo Reconstruction - Syria
by Dr. Ali Esmil - CEO of Aga Khan Cultural Services in Syria.

Aleppo has witnessed a large scale of destruction during the conflict, particularly during (201-2016). Since then, the rehabilitation and rebuilding in Aleppo has started focusing mainly on market places (Souq). They are funded and implemented by the Aga Khan Development Network, and the project of Souk al-Saqatiya” has won the Grand Award for the category of Heritage Sites and Buildings of ICCROM-ATHAR. The project succeeded in rehabilitating a popular marketplace by drawing upon a high-quality sustainable restoration work within the Reconstruction Project, while training the local cadres and contractors.

2. The rehabilitation of Beit Yakan - Cairo
by El-Habashi

Beit Yakan is a privately renovated 17th century house located in Darb el Labbana in Historic Cairo in Egypt. It is now the headquarters of its renovator’s Professional Practice (Turath Conservation Group) and NGO (Center for Revitalization of the City). It organizes events and workshops for the community which focus on heritage and art/culture. This project Cairo has won various awards and recognitions for its success into brining heritage, development, community & Sustainability.

3. Mapping collective memory of Banja Luka – Bosnia and Herzegovina
by Dr Jelena Stankovic

How does a place know itself? One of the ways a place knows itself is how it is represented on maps where we can see its cartographic history & identity. People draw maps in order to understand the city in which they live and record the collective memory preventing the city from being forgotten. This has caused the need for drawing new collective memory maps.

The memory maps of Banja Luka are based on the collective memory recorded in archive materials. There were difficulties in drawing them as they required the integration of texts, photographs and maps that had to be collected and brought together into one place. Each document about Banja Luka differs in detail, especially because of changing building and street names, so compiling these sources that complement each other was how these maps were drawn. This could be applied to any city in the world, especially to ever changing and culture vibrant regions such as the Balkans.

4. Traditional architecture development: Ishikura architectural system in Takachiho. Miyazaki – Japan
by William Roger Acosta Villanueva, Keio University, Graduate School of Media & Governance | Hiroto Kobayashi & Shigeru Ban laboratory.

The town of Takachiho in Miyazaki, Japan there is known as the place where the gods and Japanese mythology born. This place is also known for its beautiful and productive landscapes in which the agriculture is one of the main sources of their economy. Traditionally they are practicing farming for many years and improving their traditional techniques as well as their methods for conservation and storing of food. The construction system was used to protect food and other important belongings from exterior conditions and were part of the traditional house in this area in the south. In the last 40 years, technology arrived to these rural places, so locals started to use modern ways to keep food into safe spaces. After that, these vernacular and beautiful constructive systems were abandoned and currently are used as general deposits in really poor conditions.

5. Sensing Place: using digital platforms to engage communities with their heritage - East London and the Caribbean
by Prof. Niall Finneran & Dr Christina Welsh - University of Winchester, Department of Archaeology, Anthropology and Geography.

6. The Ginna Kanda Programme, Identity and intervention in African’s cultural landscape in Dogon’s country – Mali
by Miquel Vidal Pla - Universidad Politécnica de Cataluña, Escuela Técnica Superior de Arquitectura, ETSAB, Av. Diagonal, 649 Barcelona, España

The Dogon Country in the Bandiagara Fault in Mali is partially recognized as a World Heritage Site by UNESCO. It is a fragile cultural landscape based on mud architecture, mostly attached to the vertical section of the fault. The abandonment of houses and barns leads to their destruction. The identity and the intangibles of the Dogon Country are the only ones of which there exists, although questioned, documentation written. The situation is extremely serious as tourism, a relative source of income and international connection have disappeared due to the social instability of the place and the armed conflicts.

The “Outstanding Universal Value” of a World cultural or natural site and the UNESCO quest for common human values and rights should be better connected to present ideas and current concerns, with particular attention to people. The significance of a heritage site is enriched by the diverse memories of the site’s associated communities.

Although a majority of WH sites highlight common achievements, some raise issues of multiple or divergent interpretations. These issues should be openly addressed. This can be at the national level and involve consideration of cultural minorities and/or Indigenous communities associated with the site. But, when it is at the international level, as in the World Heritage Convention, these issues are particularly critical and require tactful treatment.

This Associate Theme will examine ways of peacefully consider such sensitive problems, bridge divides and deepen social cohesion. It will examine how to prevent conflicting presentations of interpretations of a site’s history, not only by acknowledging that multiple memories are associated with the site but also by articulating a methodology for involving diverse stakeholders in the nomination process, the monitoring of sites and capacity building. It will explore how digital technologies make it possible for civil society, the stakeholders associated with the site and Academia can feed pluralistic interpretations, beyond the national presentation by States Parties.

The organizers are keen to engage in dialogue with a variety of stakeholders from different regions, with a focus on good practice in how to prevent or reconcile dissonant memories at both World Heritage sites and at those that are not. Different interpretations could also be presented, on the Site or on websites, allowing the visitor to have a personal opinion. The outcomes of this dialogue will inform the interpretation and presentation as an important dimension of the management of cultural or natural heritage sites.

SESSION ORGANISERS

Jean-Louis Luxen, Member of the Board of Trustees, International Coalition of Sites of Conscience.

Haeree Shim, Programme Chief, Preparatory office for International Centre for the Interpretation and Presentation of World Heritage Sites under the auspices of UNESCO(WHIPIC).

Soobeen Cho, Project Consultant, Preparatory office for International Centre for the Interpretation and Presentation of World Heritage Sites under the auspices of UNESCO(WHIPIC).

SPEAKERS

Ali Moussa Iye - founder and director of AFROSPECTIVES

Neil Silberman - managing partner of Coherit Associates, an international heritage consultancy

Modernising processes have little time or respect for indigenous knowledge practices or ‘ways of knowing’. This is the case even though indigenous practices have enabled people to cope with issues such as healthy eating, illness challenges, as well as extreme weather events, for many years. Such practices offer decision making options, relating to village-based risk avoidance, that enable more sustainable living. This is particularly apt when considering that humanity requires more sustainable development trajectories that embrace complexity, while, at the same time, moving away from top-down technocratic approaches to a more participatory governance, research and political agendas. This, in short, is all about ‘just transitions’ as we seek to move towards sustainable living without compromising people. Within this milieu, scientific knowledge is still limited in securing a deeper understanding on how such change can be achieved. This begs the question that if modern science should embrace indigenous knowledge as a legitimate form of knowledge generation, could it bring about a deeper understanding of sustainable practices and a move towards participatory governance, research and political mechanisms?

Hand-washing and health – An Example from Africa

To put this question into context, elderly Nguni people, for example, describe how, in the past, when a stranger arrived at a village, a complex hand-washing ritual was followed before greetings were exchanged. Such a ritual has relevance to the current COVID-19 crisis where the spread of a virus can be inhibited by careful hand-washing. Interestingly, the tradition held that it was unwise to dry ones hands on fabric after washing. This is because the fabric could further harbour germs. Hands were simply allowed to drip-dry which meant that any germs would simply pass into the soil where natural microbial processes would neutralise any possible pathogens.

Unfortunately, indigenous knowledge practices and indeed natural and cultural heritage have at times been denigrated. In response to this the Southern African Journal of Environmental Education produced a dedicated edition, Volume 35, on this topic (Pesanayi et al., 2019). Pesanayi et al. (2019) describe how education in colonial southern Africa has dominated and marginalised indigenous heritage, cultures and practices. This occurs through assumptions of western modernisation, and, by default, modern scientific practices.

Milpa/forest garden cycle – An Example from Belize

Milpa/forest garden cycle has been a characteristic practice of cultivating the land by the Maya people of Central America for thousands of years. This technique involved clearing the jungle with controlled fires to create cultivable land. The ashy and fertile soil is then ready to plant maize, beans, squash, from a basketful of 100 other polyculture crops. After a few years of use, these areas strategically regenerated, creating forest gardens maintained to grow perennial plants and trees to supply all the needs of everyday life. Ironically, the modern perception of this method – shifting slash-and-burn agriculture – does not recognize the cycle and the importance of the annual and perennial components. The push to transition to industrial monoculture agriculture exhausts lands and has grown to cause serious environmental issues. Changing trends in land use and land cover threaten upland and wetland forest ecosystems.

When forests are cleared permanently and the land is used with petrochemical inputs to stave off exhaustion, noticeable changes in the weather patterns occur. The rejection of traditional agricultural methods leads to a depauperate agricultural and biological landscape.

MODERATOR: Jim Taylor - Former President, The Environmental Education Association of Southern Africa (EEASA).

PANEL COMMENTORS

Ella Erzsébet Békési, Director, Cultural Heritage & Tourism Professional of the Heritage Education Network Belize (HENB).

Dawson Munjeri, Professor, Culture and Heritage Studies at the University of Great Zimbabwe.

PROGRAM & SPEAKERS

1. Lessons of the Past: Nature and Maya traditions at Pachamama - Belize
by Rob O’Donoghue - Professor Emeritus at the Environmental Learning Research Centre (ELRC), Rhodes University

The presentation will explore indigenous knowledge practices as a foundation for emancipatory learning transactions at the margins of colonial modernity. Examples of heritage practices are contemplated as transformative learning actions from below, together, emergent through the re-discovery and recovery of indigenous knowledge practices for learning-led innovation towards more sustainable lifestyles and livelihoods, Indigenous agro-ecological and socio-economic practices in southern Africa have enabled people to historically cope with and adapt to issues such as healthy eating and other livelihood practices despite a colonial history of exclusion and a continuing socio-cultural and economic marginalisation in modern settings. An adaptive resilience is evident amongst many indigenous peoples who have been culturally and socio-economically consigned to the margins in the modern nation states in southern Africa and elsewhere.

Within this abjection, many subjugated communities, have commonly been confronted with education as a modernising development process. Here modern education is designed to empower participants so that they can extract themselves from what are commonly seen as historically embedded conditions of underdevelopment confronted by many intractable challenges to future sustainability. Another reading of these sociocultural conditions is that colonial modernity has produced complex conditions of risk to future sustainability and that indigenous peoples have an intergenerational cultural capital for learning-led innovation in relation to many sustainability concerns, for example:

• Handwashing in the face of cholera and COVID-19 (Gaze izandla) – SDG

• Composting organic waste for carbon sequestration (Izala & ukuthatha ihlathi lomthi.)

• Leaf harvesting of green vegetables for nutritional health (imifino & umfuno)

• Home fermented milk and grains for dietary health (Amasi & maRewu)

• Clarifying spring water to collect sweet water (uthuthu & Amanzi mNandi)

A culturally situated and emancipatory learning approach to future sustainability contemplates ESD as an action learning arena for regenerative just transitioning struggle in these challenging times of a COVID-19 pandemic and climate change that are currently playing out on a global scale.

This perspective has emerged within a participatory turn in education that has been slow to emerge as open, co-engaged learning actions that is no longer constrained by a dialectical epistemic gulf between Indigenous and Western. What has charaterised many current approaches to ESD is a retention of an ‘outside mediating hand of modernity’ that has always known best for The Other as ‘target group’ for an educational intervention. A parallel ‘knowledge practices’ oeuvre of critical realism has resolved much of the latent ambiguity here to enable a re-visioning of education (ESD) as a realist dialectic of co-engaged learning for emancipatory transitioning.

Education re-framed as co-engaged innovative work around indigenous knowledge practices as learning from below, together, is explored to clarify education as realist epistemic processes of dialectical emancipation. ESD is thus being explored as emergent and learner-led around indigenous knowledge practices in relation to healthy lifestyle and sustainable livelihood practices through a Hand-Print CARE approach to learning actions from below, together.

The above examples illustrate that a cultural historical approach embedded in a critical realist episteme can, for example, enables us to re-imagine ESD as co-engaged dialectical learning at the intersection of indigenous knowledge practices and the disciplinary sciences in school settings of ESD. Illustrative examples of indigenous knowledge practices in southern African eco-cultural settings are used to explore how education can be reframed as emancipatory epistemic processes that are staged and engaged by participants within the sustainability challenges that they face and around those that we all share in this modern era of transformative learning towards a just recovery from the current pandemic.

2. Lessons of the Past: Nature and Maya traditions at Pachamama - Belize
by Felicita Cantun - president of Kanan Miatsil, Guardians of Culture Association

3. The Living Museum of El Pilar: Archaeology Under the Canopy
by Anabel Ford - Maya archaeologist
and Cynthia Ellis Topsey - community advocate promoting sustainable development

4. My life depends on chocolate and chocolate depends on mother earth and mother earth depends on love
by Julio Saqui - Indigenous Mopan Maya, Owner of Che’il Mayan Chocolate of Maya Center Village, Belize

My name is Julio Saqui, an Indigenous Mopan Maya, Owner of Che’il Mayan Chocolate of Maya Center Village, Belize. I grew up with Dad, a farmer and one of the crops he plants that excites me, is cacao fruits. He uses it for his Rituals, ceremonies and drinks as well. I told him I want to make it into edible chocolate bars, which he gets to taste, before he passes away. Today, I find peace and wellness in chocolate, as I continue the art of chocolate making into Dark & Milk chocolate bars and other Che’il chocolate products.

5. Livelihood Enhancements in the Maya Golden Landscape
by Marvin Vasquez - Operation Director at Ya’axché

In the framework of the “Our World Heritage” initiative, our approach covers one of the 12 themes of the initiative: “Heritage Places and Memory”. We are pleased to invite all YOUTH around the world to share different ideas on the transmission of heritage memory.

Young people who submitted a short film on their own memories of the World Heritage Sites will join the roundtable, and special mentoring from the international heritage expert will be another valuable opportunity for the youth. This event welcomes participation of ALL DIFFERENT GENERATIONS.

MODERATOR: Jihon Kim, Senior Programme Specialist, Korean National Commission for UNESCO.

SPECIAL MENTOR

Christina Cameron, Professor, the University of Montreal (Canada) from 2005 to 2019, chairing the World Heritage Committee in 1990 and 2008.

PROGRAM & SPEAKERS

The winners of the Youth Video Contest will share memories in Heritage Sites and the significance of the heritage in the video clips.

Voice from Gochang Getbol

H5 Team: Jung Yoon Choi, Seung Min Lee, Jung Eun Lee, Sun Mi Shin, Sung Ho Jang - Graduate Students in World Heritage Studies at Konkuk University, Korea.

Memories of the Future – Leonardo Gélio

Tre+Co: Melanie Martins Barroso, Pedro Vitor Costa Ribeiro, Victória Michelini Junqueira - Architects and Urban Planners, the Faculty of Architecture and Urbanism of the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

Tarkarli

Adesh Arun Takale - Founder of Space Media, India.

Kullu

HBTACH Team: Yash Gupta - Conservation Architect for Himalayan brother Trust for Arts and Cultural Heritage(HBTACH), India.

Gyeongju Historic Areas

Jin Hyuck Jang - Graduate Student in World Heritage Studies at Konkuk University, Korea.

MODERATOR: Prof. Jaeheon Choi, Professor and a Chair of World Heritage program at Konkuk University, Seoul. ICOMOS World Heritage Panel member and the former Secretary General of ICOMOS Korea.

COORDINATOR: Jihon Kim, Senior Programme Specialist, Korean National Commission for UNESCO.

CONGRATULATORY REMARKS: Michael Turner, Professor and UNESCO Chair holder in Urban Design and Conservation Studies at the Bezalel Academy of Arts and Design, Jerusalem.

PANEL DISCUSSION:

Ahmed Skounti, Professor, The National Institute of Archaeology and Heritage Sciences (INSAP), Rabat, Morocco.

Christopher Young, Heritage Consultant and former Head of International Advice at English Heritage.

Elizabeth Silkes, Executive Director, International Coalition of Sites of Conscience.

Jean-Louis Luxen, Member of the Board of Trustees, International Coalition of Sites of Conscience.

Ella Erzsébet Békési, Director, Cultural Heritage & Tourism Professional of the Heritage Education Network Belize (HENB).

SCOPE AND PURPOSES

Urban transformations and unsustainable expansion processes, climate change, predatory tourism, degradation of protected areas, transnational exodus and the consequent generalized exhaustion of relations between society and nature, as well as socio-environmental and armed conflicts, bring new challenges to our collective heritage in the 21st century.

Most contemporary society has chosen urban centers and megacities to live. Urbanization processes had increasingly intensified and, at the same time, created opportunities. They also generated problems, tensions and impacts in different scales and territorial contexts that will need to be faced and overcome in the coming decades.

In view of the multiple environmental and socio-cultural challenges faced in a context of economic crisis deepened by the Covid-19 pandemic, which affect societies in different spheres, the role and meaning of heritage will need to absorb theoretical, conceptual and practical demands and renewed agendas to reflect on the existing urban social structures beyond the consolidated concepts that traditionally define the relations between society and its traditional historical groups and its interface with the environment and the landscape.

New approaches to heritage need to ask why and for whom heritage sites are protected, providing meaningful narratives for users to ensure their preservation. Gender, ethnicity, race and income are key aspects of diversity and inequality in the current geopolitical context to be considered.

In this way, it becomes relevant to create spaces for dialogue and exchange of knowledge and sharing of experiences, training and work opportunities for young professionals in the countries of Latin America and Lusophone Africa.

The spoken and written language, in addition to the form of communication, is an important cultural component. Portuguese is now a language spoken by around 250 million people worldwide. Although a significant part of scientific production and works related to UNESCO and World Heritage are carried out in English, if we want to have an effort of local dialogue and reflection on strategies and needs related to new approaches to heritage in the Portuguese-speaking world, we also need to do it in Portuguese.

In this sense, the intention is to interweave common concepts and methods in the context of diversity and cultural influences between the Portuguese-speaking countries of Latin America and Africa and the search for awareness, insertion and training of diverse social extracts in the conservation of heritage.

PROGRAMM

1. General context of the #2021Debates – Monica Bahia Schlee

2. New Approaches to Heritage: listening, connections and interdisciplinary dialogues – Vera Tangari, Rubens de Andrade, Monica Bahia Schlee

3. New narratives and interpretations: introduction and regional context – Albino Jopela and Rafael Winter Ribeiro

4. Hamilton Jair Fernandes – Cidade Velha, Cabo Verde

   Claudio Zunguene – Ilha de Moçambique, Moçambique

   Ziva Domingos – Mbaza Kongo, Angola

   Bruno Coutinho – Paraty e Ilha Grande, Brasil

QUESTIONS FOR THE DEBATE

First block: question for all the speakers

1. What are the main impacts and challenges that the collective heritage and especially the world heritage (natural, cultural and intangible) face in your country today?

2. What has been the heritage conservation approach, policy and practices adopted locally?

Second block: questions to be chosen by the speakers

3. Does the division between culture and nature still make sense in heritage conservation?

4. How to unite and integrate tangible and intangible aspects of heritage?

Third block: questions to be chosen by the speakers

5. How to adopt new functions, including social and economic functions aimed at new labor markets related to heritage preservation and conservation?

6. What strategies can be adapted or proposed for the conservation of heritage with vulnerable communities surrounding heritage property?

Forth block: questions to be chosen by the speakers

7. How to reconcile heritage conservation as an identity value for local populations, with its global value for civilization and as a driving force for sustainable development in Latin American countries, including Brazil, and the countries of America Lusophone?

8. What alternatives and possibilities would you recommend for the conservation of heritage in the next 50 years?

The speakers are invited to choose which questions they prefer to answer from blocks 2, 3 and 4 and the order of the speeches will be accommodated according to their choices. The purpose of these questions is to serve as a guide to the speeches of the speakers, to which we ask to kindly answer them in the context of the case study addressed by each one.

We kindly ask you to respond to this invitation indicating the availability to participate in the round table and also indicating the questions you would like to answer in your speeches, relating them to your case study. Questions not chosen will be removed from the agenda.

In the last few years, cultural heritage and nature-based solutions are increasingly being integrated into disaster risk management strategies and climate change mitigation and adaptation planning. However, the interconnections between natural and cultural heritage are not sufficiently explored and used for disaster risk prevention and post-disaster recovery strategies. In light of the increasing hazards threatening World Heritage, this session explores the opportunities that nature-culture approaches could bring for analyzing heritage places and increase their resilience by planning disasters prevention and recovery in cultural landscapes, urban areas and natural protected areas.

MODERATOR: Maya Ishizawa - Independent Heritage Specialist, Architect (Universidad Ricardo Palma) and PhD (Brandenburgische Technische Universität Cottbus-Senftenberg) (in)

SPEAKERS & CASE STUDIES

ASIA Jefferson Chua, Greenpeace – Can Resiliency Landscapes withstand pandemics? (Asia)

OCEANIA Xavier Forde, Heritage New Zealand – Strengthening Communities of knowledge: building the infrastructure of indigenous heritage in Aotearoa (Oceania)

AFRICA Alula Tesfay, Mekelle University, Ethiopia / University of Tsukuba, Japan – Ethiopia, resilient building traditions of Gunda Gundo community (Africa)

EUROPE Barbara Minguez-García, World Bank / GFDRR – Challenges and opportunities of natural and cultural heritage in disaster risk management strategies: an international cooperation perspective (Europe)

NORTH AND CENTRAL AMERICA Paloma Guzmán, Norwegian Institute for Cultural Heritage Research (NIKU) – How is conservation with a landscape approach advancing the assessment of climate change of World Heritage properties?

SOUTH AMERICA Pilar Matute, Centro Nacional de Sitios del Patrimonio Mundial, Ministerio de las Culturas, las Artes y el Patrimoo – The Minami-Sanriku Moai: a protective gift (South America)

CONFERENCE ON DIVERSITIES AND GENDERS

The conference will address how World Heritage is being contextualized in relation to Gender & Diversities and the SDGs. How can research, frameworks and working tools either theoretically or on site address marginalisation and valuation within this sector? The aim of the conference is to address various mechanisms that exclude diversity at World Heritage sites. They include: structural inequalities within World Heritage discourses that marginalise communities; domination of the majority culture over heritage policies; multiple and shifting forms of identities that can better represent official narratives on World Heritage; actions taken by stakeholders that either collectively or deliberately marginalise communities. The conference will also explore innovative ways to address issues affecting gender and diversities at World Heritage particularly relating to SDGs.

SESSION I – MONUMENTS OF OPPRESSION

This session aims to discuss how monuments reproduce structural inequalities located at the intersections of race, gender, and class to become monuments of oppression. Monuments around the world are used to support official historical narratives that often exclude the individuals and communities who interact with them. Statues, buildings, and natural monuments are given official narratives which define and commemorate an event, person, or group; these are usually imposed from a place of power. This can create a situation where those that hold power in societies impose their discourse, worldviews, and experiences onto places and spaces, an act which denies the histories, heritages, and experiences of marginalised individuals and communities.

To aid this discussion, this session examines monuments that have been elevated to the World Heritage stage alongside the oppressive narratives that support them and vice versa. We will explore mechanisms of domination, discrimination, exclusion, and erasure to highlight contemporary issues within World Heritage and its links with oppression. We will also (re)consider processes and practices that can transform monuments of oppression into inclusive spaces and places for those they have previously dominated.

Session Moderator:
Alize Utteryn (French Guiana, United Nations Journalist)

Opening Remarks by University of Nova Gorica

Opening Ancestoral Prayers by Ade Williams

SPEAKERS

Adaku Ezeudo (Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Consultant, Ireland)

Shahid Vawda (Archie Mafeje Chair, Critical and Decolonial Humanities; Professor, University of Cape Town, South Africa)

Elena Settimini (Heritage and Museum Consultant, Italy)

Speaker from Common Ground (Common Ground is a movement that sets out to examine Oxford’s colonial past in the context of its present-day inequalities)

Speaker from Rhodes Must Fall (A movement to decolonise the space, curriculum and the institutional memory at, and to fight intersectional oppression within Oxford)

Virtual Tour by Uncomfortable Oxford, an academic-led social enterprise in the city of Oxford, which runs lectures, digital events, and creates resources highlighting stories of inequality, imperialism, race, class, and gender discrimination, as well as the debates surrounding historical memory. Founded in 2018, the organisation’s goal is to raise awareness and generate uncomfortable yet meaningful discussions about these issues in the public sphere, using in particular the built environment to bring up contested histories and their present legacies.

Civil Society Theme Showcase

View the Program

Introduction and Thematic Keynotes

Moderated by Divay Gupta

Transboundary Collaboration
by Fulong Chen

Nature-Culture Linkages
by Kay Van Damme

Technical support:
Ji Young Jun
Chunfeng Yang
Joe Kallas
Michelle Duong
Andi Zhuang
Yu Zheng