News and reviews

Citation

Veldpaus, L. (2015), "News and reviews", Journal of Cultural Heritage Management and Sustainable Development, Vol. 5 No. 2. https://doi.org/10.1108/JCHMSD-09-2014-0033

News and reviews

Article Type: News and reviews From: Journal of Cultural Heritage Management and Sustainable Development, Volume 5, Issue 2.

News

Academia

Towards an integrated approach to cultural heritage for Europe

This new EU policy points out that heritage as a sector is at a “crossroads” and it calls for stronger cooperation at EU level to share ideas and best practice, which can feed into national heritage policies and governance. It also welcomes the approach set by the EU’s Environmental Impact Assessment Directive and the General Block Exemption Regulation, which allows state aid for the sector. It encourages a similar approach to support heritage in broader policy-making at EU, national and regional levels. Research and projects in the field of cultural heritage are expected to benefit from EU investments in 2014-2020, for example through the European Structural and Investment Funds (with a total budget of €351 billion for regional policy), Horizon 2020 (€80 billion for research) and Creative Europe (€1.5 billion for cultural and creative industries).

Source: http://heritageportal.eu/News-Events/Latest-News/EC-Communication-%E2%80%9CTowards-an-integrated-approach-to-cultural-heritage-for-Europe%E2%80%9D.16168.shortcut.html and http://ec.europa.eu/culture/library/publications/2014-heritage-communication_en.pdf

New UNESCO Chairs in Cultural Heritage

Over the past months, several new UNESCO chairs in the field of cultural heritage have been awarded. For example Durham University (Durham, UK) established a Chair on Archaeological Ethics and Practice in Cultural Heritage. Kadir Has University (Istanbul, Turkey) signed an agreement establishing a UNESCO Chair on Management and Promotion of World Heritage Sites: New Media and Community Involvement. The University of the Basque Country established a UNESCO Chair on Cultural Landscapes and Heritage and Vrije Universiteit Brussel (Brussels, Belgium) now has a Chair on Critical Heritage Studies and Safeguarding the Intangible Cultural Heritage. There is also a new Chair on Culture Archaeological Ethics and Practice in Cultural Heritage, Habitat and Sustainable Development at the Srishti School of Art, Design and Technology (Bangalore/Pune, India).

Source: www.unesco.org/new/fileadmin/MULTIMEDIA/HQ/ED/pdf/listchairs30062015.pdf

JPI Cultural Heritage

Heritage Values Network (mailto:H@V). The JPI Cultural Heritage launched several Calls for Research Proposals in Cultural Heritage since 2013. mailto:H@V is one of the selected projects. The project aims to examine the ways in which a conceptual and methodological framework for identifying, assessing and measuring the values that individuals or groups of people attribute to heritage can be developed and shared among heritage organisations and researchers across Europe. It did so through fostering a European research network that brings together academics, heritage practitioners and policy makers in three transnational networking workshops in Eindhoven, Oslo and Barcelona. Results are presented on http://heritagevalues.net/

The mailto:H@V would like to know your thoughts and opinions on Heritage Values; you can help by taking part in a short (anonymous) survey: http://heritagevalues.net/news/your-thoughts-on-heritage-values

Praxis

Habitat III – United Nations Conference on Housing and Sustainable Urban Development

Habitat III is to take place in 2016. It will focus on the implementation of a “New Urban Agenda”, building on the Habitat Agenda of Istanbul in 1996. It offers a unique opportunity to discuss the important challenge of how cities, towns and villages are planned and managed, in order to fulfil their role as drivers of sustainable development, and hence shape the implementation of new global development and climate change goals. Many of the designated themes (e.g. resilience, reconstruction, planning and design, and energy) have a strong and direct link with the heritage management in urban contexts. A direct mention of heritage can be found in the sub theme: Social Cohesion and Equity – Livable Cities. In preparation of the conference, there are various meetings, consultation processes, and issue papers.

Source: https:// www.habitat3.org/

27 new entries to the World Heritage list

At its 39th session held from 28 June to 8 July 2015 in Bonn (Germany), the World Heritage Committee inscribed 27 new sites on the World Heritage list, of which 24 are Cultural, two Natural and one Mixed; in addition three significant modifications to the boundaries where approved. So 37 years after the first 12 inscriptions in 1978, the list now has 1,031 inscriptions. With the listing of Blue and John Crow Mountains, Jamaica entered the list for the first time, as did Singapore with the inscription of its Botanical Gardens. Three sites were placed on the List in Danger, namely: Old City of Sana’a (Yemen), Old Walled City of Shibam (Yemen), and Hatra (Iraq), while Los Katíos National Park (Colombia) was removed from it.

During the meeting, a Global Coalition, Unite for Heritage was launched. The campaign is designed to strengthen the mobilisation of governments and all heritage stakeholders in the face of deliberate damage to cultural heritage, particularly in the Middle East.

The 40th session of the World Heritage Committee will be in Istanbul (Turkey) from 10 to 20 July 2016.

Source: http://whc.unesco.org/en/newproperties/ and http://whc.unesco.org/en/news/1303

The Getty Conservation Institute’s (GCI’s) 30th birthday, 1985-2015

The GCI turned 30 this year. Throughout 2015 this anniversary is celebrated by looking back at some of the accomplishments, work, and events that have shaped the GCI since its founding in 1985.

The GCI aims to advance conservation practice in the visual arts, including objects, collections, architecture, and sites. It does so by means of scientific research, education and training, model field projects, and the dissemination knowledge, to benefit the professionals and organisations responsible for the conservation of the world’s cultural heritage.

Source: http://blogs.getty.edu/iris/thirty-years-of-advancing-conservation-practice/

Upcoming Events

1-6 November 2015 in Jeju, Korea

Re-thinking Lifescape: Linking Landscape to Everyday Life (ICOMOS-IFLA ISCCL 2015)

Organised by: ICOMOS Korea

Source: www.icomos2015jeju.org/eng/

11-12 November 2015 in Malacca, Malaysia

International Islamic Heritage Conference (IsHeC 2015)

Organised by: Academy of Contemporary Islamic Studies (ACIS), Universiti Teknologi MARA, Melaka, Malaysia, and the Research, Industry, Community & Alumni Networking Division, Universiti Teknologi MARA Melaka

Source: www.ishec2015.com

12-15 November 2015 in Belgrade, Serbia

International Conference on Sustainable Development (ICSD)

Organised by: Yıldız Technical University

Source: www.icsd.eu

23-27 November 2015, Luxor – Aswan, Egypt

Conservation of Architectural Heritage

Organised by: IEREK – International Experts for Research Enrichment and Knowledge Exchange

Source: www.ierek.com/events/conservation-architectural-heritage-cah/

11-12 December 2015 in Limassol, Cyprus

International Conference on Sustainability in Architectural Cultural Heritage

Organised by: University of Cyprus

Source: http://cyprusconferences.org/biocultural2015

March 31-April 4 2016 in Taipei, Taiwan

Inheriting the City: Advancing Understandings of Urban Heritage

Organised by: Ironbridge International Institute of Cultural Heritage, University of Birmingham and National Taiwan University

Source: https://inheritingthecity.wordpress.com/

20-22 April 2016 in Turin, Italy

Tasting the Landscape∣53 IFLA World Congress

Organised by: Associazione Italiana di Architettura del Paesaggio, Città di Torino, and the International Federation of Landscape Architects

Source: www.ifla2016.com

11-14 May 2016 in Aichi-Nagoya, Japan

Impact Assessment: Resilience and Sustainability (IAIA16)

Organised by: the International Association for Impact Assessment and the Tokyo Institute of Technology

Source: http://conferences.iaia.org/2016/

May 30-June 3, 2016 in Tampere, Finland

CIB World Building Congress 2016: Intelligent Built Environment for Life

Organised by: The International Council for Research and Innovation in Building and Construction (CIB), Finnish Association of Civil Engineers (RIL), and the Tampere University of Technology (TUT).

Source: www.wbc16.com/wbc16.html

7-10 June 2016 in Montreal, Canada

What Does Heritage Change? Le patrimoine, ça change quoi?

Organised by: Association of Critical Heritage Studies (ACHS), Canada Research Chair on Urban Heritage (University of Quebec), and the Centre for Oral History and Digital Storytelling (Concordia University)

Source: http://achs2016.uqam.ca/en

June 2016 in Newcastle, UK

Landscape in Imagination and the Virtual Future

Organised by: CHeriScape

Source: www.cheriscape.ugent.be/conferences/conference-5

24-27 August 2016 in Helsinki, Finland

Reinterpreting Cities: 13th International Conference on Urban History

Organised by: European Association for Urban History (EAUH)

Source: https://eauh2016.net/

Short reviews

Books

Railway Heritage and Tourism

Edited by Michael V. Conlin and Geoffrey R. Bird

Channel View Publications, Bristol, UK

ISBN 978-1-84541-437-5

Review by Paloma Guzman

The book is an original contribution to the literature on railways as a form of industrial heritage and its relationship with the tourism industry. With a wide range of case studies, this book illustrates the issues and challenges surrounding the different types of railway heritage from around the world. Key topics are railway journeys as an alternative to touristic activities and destinations, the conservation and touristic development of infrastructures, and the quality of landscapes to be traversed and their role in the traveller experience. Lessons are drawn from what makes the tourism experience sustainable, e.g. adaptive reuse and the inclusion of strategic stakeholders that ensure the economic viability of this heritage sector.

Source: www.channelviewpublications.com/display.asp?isb=9781845414375

The Past in the Present: A Living Heritage Approach

Authored by: Ioannis Poulis

Ubiquity Press, London, UK

ISBN 978-1-909188-27-3

Review by Johan J. Swart

Paulios unpacks and develops the idea of “living heritage” within the formal conservation management context, where the relationship between community, conservation, and tourism is problematic and the need to develop increasingly dynamic and integrated conservation solutions is pressing. The “living heritage approach” is presented here as a reaction to the stated limitations of existing approaches (material and values based), an argument developed with reference to a particularly complex and interesting case study, the Orthodox Monastic site of Meteora, Greece. This book positions itself at the centre of a raging conservation debate, although its claims of novelty do not necessarily consider all the recent discourse. Emphasis of the proposed approach on functional and associative continuity furthers the discussions between conservation strategies, and their application to sites where the link between original production and current community is more tenuous.

Source: www.ubiquitypress.com/site/books/detail/9/past-in-the-present

Architecture Since 1400

Authored by: Kathleen James-Chakraborty

University of Minnesota Press, Minneapolis, MN, USA

ISBN 978-0-8166-7397-1

The relatively short and clear chapters make the book easily accessible to those looking for a global overview of architectural history. The suggestions for further reading at the end of every chapter are useful and indicate that each chapter is, of course, only an introduction to the period or theme. The book claims to be the first history of architecture that gives equal attention to western and non-western structures and built landscapes. However, most chapters, although arguably more inclusive than previous books on architectural history, are still focused on so-called western architecture and/or its influence abroad. Only one-third of the chapters is on non-western architecture. Yet, it is definitely a step in the right direction, and in that sense valuable. If only to show there is still a lot more to cover and discover from many perspectives when it comes to a global architectural history.

Source: www.upress.umn.edu/book-division/books/architecture-since-1400

Many Voices, One Vision: The Early Years of the World Heritage Convention

Authored by: Christina Cameron and Mechtild Rössler

Ashgate Publishing, Farnham, UK

ISBN 978-1-4094-3765-9

This is an extensive and insightful description of the “birth” of the most endorsed but maybe also the most criticised conventions of UNESCO: the World Heritage Convention.

The establishment and the maturing of the Convention, its impacts, its workings, its tools and the theoretical and practical understanding of concepts and institutes connected to it, are being captured by this book. Based at numerous interviews with those involved in the process, and extensive archival research, the book provides a very good start for everyone in some way interested in (World) heritage management. For once, the authors try not to make assumptions about what the convention is(n’t) or should(n’t) be, the story is laid out based on as many facts and factors the authors could find in historical research and left for the reader to interpret. Quite refreshing!

Source: www.ashgate.com/isbn/9781409437659

Past Events

4th International Conference on Heritage and Sustainable Development – HERITAGE2014

22-25 July 2014, Guimarães, Portugal

The conference took place in Guimarães, Portugal. With over 120 paper presentations in eight topics, the conference aimed to capture the state of the art in the field of heritage and sustainable development. This 4th edition made one thing very clear: the topic has a very broad range of interpretations. That is very interesting, though also vulnerable to a certain level of superficiality, and the loss of possibilities to discuss topics in depth. It will be interesting to see how the organiser (Green Lines Institute for Sustainable Development) will further position itself, in the also expanding field of conferences in heritage studies.

More via: http://heritage2014.greenlines-institute.org

EAUH 2014 – 12th International Conference on Urban History: Cities in Europe, Cities in the World

3-6 September 2014, Lisbon, Portugal

Review by Gabriel Caballero

The conference, organised by the European Association for Urban History, took place in Lisbon, Portugal. Over 500 papers in 70 sessions looked at the historic development of cities in Europe and the rest of the world. The conference’s strength lies in its extensive amount of topics, showcasing the diverse histories and current issues of urban areas mainly in Europe. However, this same diversity has perhaps disconnected scholars coming from different realms of understanding. The conference could have benefitted from some additional thematically focused round table discussions, to further discuss similar interests and produce a cohesive perspective on the themes in urban history.

More via: www.eauh2014.fcsh.unl.pt

Culture(s) in Sustainable Futures

6-8 May 2015, Helsinki, Finland

The closing event of the European research network COST Action Investigating Cultural Sustainability was the conference Culture(s) in sustainable futures in Helsinki organised by the University of Jyväskylä. The COST Action “Investigating Cultural Sustainability” (2011-2015) aimed to increase understanding of and determine the role of culture in sustainable development based on multidisciplinary principles and approaches. Some of the results of their activities are a report “Culture in, for and as Sustainable Development” and the forthcoming proceedings of this conference. The conference gathered a very interdisciplinary group of almost 300 researchers coming from over 35 countries. The results are definitely interesting; it sets an agenda for the future, as the topic is far from fully explored.

More via: www.culturalsustainability.eu/

Tools and web sites

Assessment tools and interactive data to manage transformation. More and more, the visualisation and the analysis of larger data sets is becoming practise in heritage management. Some interesting recent examples:

• Dr Schich, an art historian at the University of Texas at Dallas, and his colleagues used an existing Google-owned database (Freebase) of notable persons to create a movie that starts in 600 BC and ends in 2012, by which they visualise cultural history – as a city becomes more important, more notable people die there. Although highly biased data, it is very interesting as historians tend to focus on cases, while this data allow us to see a bigger picture too, and with that new correlations. Source: www.nature.com/news/humanity-s-cultural-history-captured-in-5-minute-film-1.15650

• The web site by the International Institute of Environment and Development (IIED) among many other things includes a map that covers all cities with 500,000-plus inhabitants between 1800 and 2030. It illustrates the scale and speed of urban transformation at a glance.Source: www.iied.org/cities-interactive-data-visual

• A new initiative is the atlas of contemporary information and internet geographies, which aims for the comprehensive mapping of contemporary geographies of knowledge by the Oxford Internet Institute.Source: http://geography.oii.ox.ac.uk

• Some platforms specifically focused on (World) heritage management globally are: a new site World Heritage Outlook, for the global assessment of the conservation prospects for natural World Heritage; Protected Planet, a well-developed and established monitoring tool for Natural heritage areas globally; and its recently established cultural counterpart Protected Urban Planet a tool developed for visualising, mapping and contributing to information exchange on the evolution of protected urban areas worldwide.

Source: www.worldheritageoutlook.iucn.org/, www.protectedplanet.net, and http://protectedurbanplanet.net

Loes Veldpaus