Values-Led Design Cards: Building Ethically Engaged Archaeology and Heritage Experiences

Francesca Dolcetti,Claire Boardman,Sara Perry,Rachel Opitz

doi:10.3390/su13073659

Francesca Dolcetti, Claire Boardman + Show 2 more

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https://doi.org/10.3390/su13073659

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Abstract

The agenda for an engaged and impactful archaeology has been set out emphatically in a variety of recent reports, positioning archaeology and heritage as important sources of public value and social benefit. While many ascribe to these aims, how to put them into practice in concrete terms remains a real challenge. Tools, methods and methodologies developed for the wider research community as it engages with the “impact agenda” at large have been adapted and applied in archaeological and heritage practice with variable success. In this paper, we discuss the creation of a values-led, card-based design toolkit and the considerations involved in customising it for use by archaeology and heritage sector practitioners. We evaluate reflexive feedback from participants in a toolkit testing workshop, together with our own reflections on the workshop experience. Building on these, we assess the potential and limitations of the toolkit and its underpinning values-led design theory to generate critically engaged archaeological and heritage experiences.

Highlights

We draw on design theories and practices, primarily those of values-led design [5,6,7,8,9], which move beyond a focus on products and services to place increasing emphasis on design’s potential to achieve wider impacts, for example social innovation and sustainable behaviours [10] (p. 515)
The experience of workshop participants and their feedback provides useful information on the perceived success of this values-led, toolkit/cards approach, it is essential to reflect on the extent to which participants were able to recognize values embedded in different aspects of their projects, assess their impacts, and take values-led design decisions
Many practitioners in archaeology and heritage are open to design methodologies and are sympathetic to the values-led framework. They face multiple challenges when attempting to put the ethos of values-led design into practice

Summary

Introduction

853) is an active component in many expressions of heritage Practitioners in both archaeology and heritage continuously negotiate the connections between their fields. In these negotiations, heritage engages with archaeology to produce a range of contemporary activities, meanings, and behaviours, intended to invite and enable active public reflection, debate, and discussion around what is remembered and on the ownership and presentation of the past. We reflect on the redevelopment of an existing design tool for heritage-based storytelling, created in the context of the EMOTIVE Project [11], to adapt it for use by archaeology and heritage practitioners working on more diverse projects. Our efforts are motivated by a genuine desire to identify aids which practitioners can use to think

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