Book: Cultural Heritage and the Future
Drawing on case studies from around the world, ”Cultural Heritage and the Future” argues that cultural heritage and the future are intimately linked and that the development of futures thinking should be a priority for academics, students and those working in the wider professional heritage sector.
Cultural Heritage and the Future
Edited by Cornelius Holtorf and Anders Högberg
Routledge 2021
More information on the publisher’s webpage (Routledge)
The volume is a contribution to the field of Heritage Futures. Heritage futures are concerned with the roles of heritage in managing the relations between present and future societies, e.g. through anticipation, planning and prefiguration.
As we move into the future, the biggest challenge of sustainable heritage management is how to make heritage absorb changes while continuing to provide benefits for human societies. The most important question of conservation is therefore not how much heritage of any one period may or may not survive intact into the future but what historical legacy, which we construct and leave behind, will come to benefit future generations the most.
“Overall, ‘Cultural Heritage and the Future’ is an important book that opens up a number of critical questions for the heritage sector and for society in general.” Giovanni Boccardi, Rome, Italy
“This book makes important contributions to deconstruct and rethink the idea of heritage. The very fact that no one has complete control over the future is what makes this topic so interesting and challenging.” Andrés Zarankin, Federal University of Minas Gerais, Brazil
“Ultimately, this book is a useful guide to all heritage practitioners from archaeologists to heritage site managers because it provides a guide for how to think about the future in a broad sense – that it is changeable and fluid and that the way we think about heritage today should be as well.” Kate Croll, University of the Witwatersrand, South Africa
“We should open our minds to the fact that what we pass forward as a result of our conservation attempts may be understood very differently by the recipients than we intended or even imagined.” Jane Henderson, Cardiff University, UK
Reviews
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Content
1. Introduction: Cultural heritage as a futuristic field,
Cornelius Holtorf and Anders Högberg – free download “preview pdf”
Section 1: The future in heritage studies and heritage management
2. Heritage practices as future-making practices,
Rodney Harrison
3. Heritage, thrift, and our children’s children,
Sarah May
4. Perceptions of the future in preservation strategies (Or: why Eyssl von
Eysselsberg’s body is no longer taken across the lake),
Cornelius Holtorf and Anders Högberg
5. The future and management of ICH in China from a legal perspective,
Luo Li
Section 2: The future in cultural heritage
6. Decolonizing the future: Folk art environments and the temporality of
heritage,
Alfredo González-Ruibal
7. The spectre of non-completion: An archaeological approach to half-built
buildings,
James Dixon
8. An archaeology of Cold War armageddonism through the lens of
Scientology,
Robert Charlotte Maxwell
9. Future visions and the heritage of space: Nostalgia for infinity. A dialogue
between
Alice Gorman and Sarah May
Section 3: Re-thinking heritage futures
10. What lies ahead? Nuclear waste as cultural heritage of the future,
Cornelius Holtorf and Anders Högberg
11. The future in the past, the past in the future,
Rosemary A. Joyce
12. Radioactive heritage of the future: A legacy of risk,
Marcos Buser, Abraham Van Luik†, Roger Nelson and Cornelius Holtorf
Section 4: Heritage and future-making
13. Sustainability, intergenerational equity, and pluralism: Can heritage
conservation create alternative futures?,
Erica Avrami
14. Palliative curation and future persistence: Life after death,
Caitlin DeSilvey
15. The future, atemporality and heritage: "Yesterday´s tomorrow is not today",
Paul Graves-Brown
16. Heritages of futures thinking: Strategic foresight and critical futures,
Richard Sandford and May Cassar
17. Final reflections: The future of heritage,
Anders Högberg and Cornelius Holtorf
About the editors
Cornelius Holtorf is Professor of Archaeology and holds a UNESCO Chair on Heritage Futures at Linnaeus University in Kalmar, Sweden, where he is also directing the Graduate School in Contract Archaeology (GRASCA). In his research, he is particularly interested in contemporary archaeology, heritage theory and heritage futures, with numerous international publications in these areas. He also likes sailing.
Anders Högberg is Professor of Archaeology at Linnaeus University and Associated Researcher at the University of Johannesburg, South Africa. He has broad research interests, and is currently working with projects on heritage futures, migration and cognitive evolution.
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