CLIMATES OF HERITAGE CONSERVATION:
Responding to the Challenge of Global Climate Change through
Public Engagement and Social Innovation
Deadline for abstract submission
15 January 2009
Since 2005, UNESCO has been challenging cultural heritage organizations
to take account of global climate change in their conservation mission
as well as their methods. In particular, UNESCO has encouraged such
organizations to work more closely with ecological organizations
and also to assume a greater level of activism toward the public.
These recommendations dovetail with the accepted international
approach to involve the community in a sustainable heritage conservation
and presentation policy as they are formulated in guidelines and
charters such as the Faro Convention of the Council of Europe or
the ICOMOS Ename Charter.
What is not clear however, is how the issue of Global Climate Change
affects the wider contexts and settings that are part of a long-term
heritage conservation programme or the public awareness and engagement
regarding heritage. Some organizations may find their level of effectiveness
reduced as they attempt to take on tasks that lie beyond their expertise.
Others will find new forms of public engagement and garner greater
public support for their work.
While the impacts of Global Climate Change are several, this three-day
colloquium will focus on those of immediate and obvious significance
to the Low Countries, namely rising sea levels and increased river
flooding. Papers presented will provide comparative experiences
from diverse nations in all the world’s regions that are subject
to these threats as they impact cultural heritage. It is understood
that cultural heritage here refers not simply to monumental sites
or cultural landscapes, but also to the intangible heritage that
is so much at risk. Among the questions to be asked are the following:
- What have been the experiences with cultural sites or landscapes
in diverse settings with rising sea levels and/or river flooding?
- What have been the responses of cultural heritage organizations
and how have they coordinated with other organizations active
in the defense or relief effort?
- Can heritage conservation and interpretation programmes learn
from ecological approaches and vice versa or is there a danger
that cultural heritage preservation will become subsumed by the
attention given to ecological conservation?
- In what way does Global Climate Change alter heritage conservation
programmes or how does it affect the interpretation and presentation
of cultural heritage sites?
- How can cultural heritage professionals respond pro-actively
to the global threat of climate change?
- What does it mean for heritage organizations to engage in broader
social advocacy in the light of Global Climate Change?
- Is Global Climate Change only a threat for heritage conservation
policies or does it also provide new opportunities?
We are therefore seeking innovative contributions from heritage
administrators, archaeologists, historians, cultural economists,
educators, cultural policy specialists and practitioners under the
following four topics:
1. Actual Site Impacts and Predictions due to Global Climate
Change
2. Attitudes and Responses from heritage organizations
towards Global Climate Change
3. Climate Change, Cultural Tourism, and Development
4. Widening Public Engagement and Forging Organizational
Alliances
Abstracts for poster presentations, short papers (10 min.) and
research papers (20 min.) on these themes will be accepted until
15 January 2009.
They should be a maximum of 300 words, in English, sent either
by fax to +32-55-303-519 or by email to Willem Derde at colloquium@enamecenter.org.
Authors should include full contact information (name, institutional
affiliation, mailing address, phone, fax and e-mail address).
Notification of acceptance will be sent by 1 February 2009.
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