Heritage In Sustainable Development Research Articles

The power of intangible heritage in sustainable development

The power of intangible heritage in sustainable development

Sensory Ecofeminism for Heritage, Tourism, and Sustainability in Mauritius

Worldwide, UNESCO provides a global and authorized set of protocols for the conservation of heritage. The organization has long framed the discourse and practice of cultural heritage management. At the Hangzhou International Congress in 2013, UNESCO declared culture as key to development, thereby confirming the role of culture and cultural heritage in sustainable development. In this article, attention is given to emerging sensory ecofeminism and its links to heritage and tourism in Mauritius, specifically in “unauthorized” heritage management locales and hotel settings. The research problem engaged in this study is that globally, heritage conservation is perceived as being of primary interest to UNESCO, the prerogative of authorized professionals and nominated heritage sites. The goal of the research is to understand the manifestation of cultural heritage and its management in coastal locales and how coastal sites and “unauthorized” heritage managers, hitherto not included in national heritage discourse and practice, may advance inclusive heritage management. Using the anthropological research methods of semi-structured interviews and participant observation to produce ethnographic data in 2022, this study finds that a selection of luxury hotels in Mauritius advances a gender-influenced and ecofeminist discourse that supports heritage, tourism, and sustainability in Mauritius. The conclusion of this study is that “unauthorized” heritage management processes and practices in luxury hotels and tourism establishments can be gender and community inclusive, sensitive to various social hierarchies, and required to achieve environmental sustainability. It is recommended that national heritage institutions and practitioners give more attention to the diverse, often unexpected locales for heritage conservation and inclusion.

Smart Heritage for Urban Sustainability: A Review of Current Definitions and Future Developments

Smart heritage is still novel in heritage discourse, with a few relevant review articles. In this regard, a specific interpretation of smart architectural heritage and a framework for instructing its development is lacking. This article reviews the literature on smart heritage in sustainable development to fill the knowledge gap. As a methodology for this study, the integrative review approach and thematic analysis are adopted to review references located at the crossroads of historic, smart, and sustainable disciplines. The review and interpretation draw on literature from relevant fields to understand implementations, current states, and support to interpret smart heritage. Review outcomes indicate that smart heritage is becoming dynamic as technologies are increasingly applied to more detailed heritage branches. This article lists the factors that heritage should possess to be defined as smart, and it provides a framework that might be followed to achieve the aims of this discourse by stating that smart heritage discussions are relevant to smart cities, as they may have a mutual effect and interact to promote each other.

Counter-Mapping through Digital Tools as an Approach to Urban History: Investigating the Spatial Condition of Activism

Cultural heritage has a central role in sustainable development, and it has the potential to re-imagine more democratic cities. Yet, critical theory has framed cultural heritage not only as the material remains of the past, but also as a dynamic interaction of humans with their past that encompasses tangible and intangible entities. Thus, it is necessary to research these dynamics to understand the role of cultural heritage as a resource for sustainable development. In this context, the main research question of this article is: “How does heritage is shaped and managed by the ‘present’? Can we understand this process through the opportunities of digital humanities?”. To confront this question, the research adapts the counter-mapping methodology with the digital humanities perspective focusing on the urban protest movements that took place in the historic areas of Istanbul throughout the 1960s. It is seen that the spatial pattern of these movements was the result of the urban operations of the 1950s. In the 1950s, an autocratic government shaped the urban space and redefined the urban heritage to concentrate more power. However, in the 1960s, workers and students used the very same spaces and again redefined the urban heritage by exercising their social rights. Based on these results, the main conclusion is that for revealing the full potential of cultural heritage in sustainable development, it is necessary to deepen our knowledge on how heritage operates in a society, considering that heritage changes meaning depending on the socio-political context of the period.

Beyond Good Intentions: The Role of the Building Passport for the Sustainable Conservation of Built Heritage to Behavioural Change

Despite the recognised importance of built heritage for sustainable development, and the multiple tools, recommendations, guidelines, and policies developed in recent years to support decision-making, good sustainable conservation practices often fail to be implemented. Challenges faced by practitioners often relate to external factors, and there is a gap in the understanding of the role of the nature of the designer and the behavioural dimension of the challenges in implementation. This research applies the Theory of Planned Behaviour (TPB) to verify how a building passport for sustainable conservation (BPSC) impacts design students’ intentions and actual design decisions towards built heritage conservation. This research aims to ascertain the role of the BPSC to affect attitudes, subjective norms, and intentions and ultimately change conservation behaviours. The results show that this tool has a positive contribution to reinforce existing attitudinal beliefs. Still, no significant changes were found in the overall conservation behaviours, suggesting that beliefs hindering implementation may more often be related to aesthetic reasons, creativity and innovation, and program requirements, than with beliefs regarding the sustainable performance of the building. This study demonstrates that using the TPB to analyse design processes in the context of built heritage is an innovative methodological approach that contributes to a deeper understanding of the psychological factors affecting sustainability and built heritage conservation decisions.

Harnessing cultural heritage for sustainable development: an analysis of three internationally funded projects in MENA Countries

ABSTRACT The importance of cultural heritage as an enabler of sustainable development is widely acknowledged. However, its role has remained marginalised in past and current international development agendas. This paper provides an original interdisciplinary study interrogating the potential of harnessing cultural heritage (both tangible and intangible) for sustainable development. It also reflects on how international policies and narratives on cultural heritage for development have been implemented on the ground. In particular, it critically examines the contribution of cultural heritage to worldwide developmental issues, with an approach that traverses the three sustainable development dimensions. It investigates how cultural heritage has been used to tackle global challenges, such as poverty alleviation in marginalised groups (economic dimension); gender equality and the empowerment of women (social dimension); and environmental sustainability (environmental dimension). The analysis focuses on three heritage for development projects funded through the ‘Millennium Development Goals Achievement Fund’, jointly implemented by UNESCO in partnership with other United Nations organisations and local partners in the Middle East and North Africa between 2008 and 2013. The article sheds light on multifaceted aspects of cultural heritage for sustainable development by discussing key achievements and common pitfalls.

Nature:Cultures – Heritage, Sustainability and Feminist Posthumanism

This paper makes use of feminist posthumanism to outline how a range of heritage policies, practices and strategies, partly through their base in social constructivism have a clear anthropocentric focus. Not only do they risk downplaying materiality, but also a number of human and non-human others, driving a wedge between nature and culture. This may in turn be an obstacle for the use of heritage in sustainable development as it deals with range of naturalized others as if they have no agency and leaves the stage open for appropriation and exploi- tation. This paper probes into what heritage could be in the wake of current climate and environmental challenges if approached differently. It explores how a selection of feminist posthumanisms challenge the distinction between nature:culture in a way that could shift the approach to sustainability in heritage making from a negative to an affirmative framing.

World Culture Heritage in sustainable development. The case of Wismar and Stralsund

Gradually realizing the consequences of development related solely to economic growth, modern cities are turning their attention towards the concept of sustainable development. Using the World Heritage Cities of Wismar and Stralsund as an example, this study examines how the concept of sustainable development relates to World Heritage status. This paper aims to identify what is the implementation of the World Cultural Heritage (WCH) protection program in urban policies and the limitations of sustainable development programs related to.The innovation of this research lies in the fact that the article considers how local governments make decisions regarding the implementation of WCH programs or sustainable development programs in cities similar in structure and historical past. The materials for the study are expert interviews with the author’s city administration, local activists, employees of museums and tourist centers, representatives of local businesses. Based on the obtained data, the main directions were identified why the city administration implements the WCH and restricts the sustainable development programs.The study showed that urban policies are formed in a situation where the status of the WCH cannot be considered solely as a benefit to the city. Today, the city administration sees the strategy of implementing the WCH program as more beneficial in the time perspective and implements sustainable development programs only with significant limitations.

Territorial Effects of Shared-Living Heritage Regeneration

The paper presents further steps of study started by authors in recent years, as part of the widest international research collaboration, which focuses on shared life and regeneration of abandonment of rural settlements as strategies for the development of sustainable territories. This research aims to understand how the regeneration of ancient community buildings impacts on the sustainable development of the local context. To understand these effects, the research considered four traditional typologies of community buildings, from different cultures: Tulou (China), Cascina (Italy), Hacienda (Mexico), and Marae (New Zealand). Among the tens/hundreds of contemporary regeneration interventions, three contemporary projects per each of these typologies have been selected. To assess the territorial impact of the projects a new approach has been defined using Expert Interviews as the methodology, so as to be able to have an assessment directly by experts in the fields of regenerative projects and sustainable development. The Expert Interviews were held based on a questionnaire that assessed the effects of the projects. For the evaluation of the projects, two categories of indicators have been selected: (1) United Nations SDGs, (2) architectural regeneration indicators generated by the study “The Role of Cultural Heritage in Sustainable Development: Multidimensional Indicators as Decision-Making Tool”, by Francesca Nocca, published in Sustainability (2017, 9, 1882). The research outputs show how the urban-architectural regeneration of these historical typologies can be clearly associated with indications of sustainable development. The results also show that in all four cultures the regeneration of historic buildings provides many benefits to local communities by successfully mixing different income groups and the inclusion of marginalized or vulnerable groups.

Методика за опазване и популяризиране на културното наследство с художествени взаимодействия и образователни въздействия чрез информационни и комуникационни технологии

The methodics, subject of the present study is based on research and analysis of the impact of the results from conservation and cultural heritage activities. At the same time, the study explores the possibilities to promote cultural heritage with artistic interactions and educational impacts through the application of modern information and communication technologies (ICT), using an interdisciplinary analysis of the scientific information for the cultural heritage sites. The concept of “authentic artistic interactions” has been introduced as a new approach to the preservation and promotion of ruined cultural heritage. It underlines the importance of the interpretation of cultural heritage in the context of ICT (ICT) capabilities for the promotion of immovable and movable cultural values. Factual examples for presentation of the European cultural heritage, using Augmented reality, are viewed. The study presents the opportunities for interpretation of the cultural heritage through visual research with information and communication technologies (ICT) in a real “in situ” and museum environment through examples from Bulgaria for using the methodics, which was introduced in the dissertation “Conservation of the cultural heritage of Bulgaria in the context of the synthesis of architecture and fine arts “(Nenov 2016). It describes the capabilities of the method with examples from projects created by a team with head arch. Ivelin Nenov. “For these objects an environment for interpretation and presentation of the cultural heritage was created through visual interactions in a real “in situ” and museum environment.” (Nenov 2018.a) In the context of the examples of application, the study highlights the need for introducing new approaches for conservation and management of the cultural heritage, and it emphasizes the serious benefits for society as: the realization of educational influences, a qualitative change in the attitude towards the historical memory, a real opportunity to organize monitoring of the preservation processes in cultural heritage, inclusion of cultural heritage in sustainable development, building a new cultural infrastructure, a powerful boost for the development of the creative industries.

The Role of Uncomfortable Heritage in Sustainable Development

This research examines the concept of uncomfortable heritage sites, and analyse how sustainable development can be attained through utilising adaptive reuse for sites associated with atrocious events. The research starts with a thorough analysis of key issues; uncomfortable heritage and its cultural significance, heritage adaptive reuse, and last but not least, sustainable development. Three aspects of sustainability were chosen for this study; environmental, economic and most importantly cultural sustainability. The resulted research created a framework in which an application of comparative analyses between the cases were employed, which are Haus des Meeres in Vienna, The Energy Bunker in Hamburg and Boros Collection in Berlin. The research concluded that adaptive reuse of uncomfortable heritage contributed to the sustainable development in various ways; however, due to the sensitivity of this type of heritage, it is very important to conduct a comprehensive analysis on the site before adaptively reusing it.

Cultural heritage in sustainable development

PurposePreservation of historic structures meets ecological criteria of sustainable development. In Mount Lebanon, the traditional house is a cultural asset built of native stone one-meter thick double-wythe walls. Today, lack of public policies is causing those environmental assets to approach extinction. The paper aims to discuss this issue.Design/methodology/approachThe methodology uses multivariate regression on 128 data points. A mathematical model is developed and empirically tested on public attitudes toward restoration. Independent variables represent the need for protectionist policies, X1; contribution of restoration to environmental sustainability, X2; contribution to culture, X3; and financial benefits, X4.FindingsIt is found that stone houses transfer heat significantly slower than modern construction. There is a statistically significant and positive correlation with X1, X2, and X3, but negative with X4, most likely due to favoring return on investment of multistory buildings over the attractiveness of stone houses.Research limitations/implicationsAs future research implications, the undergirding of urban planning policies need to be revisited. Current policies neither protect heritage, nor offer legal means to restore heritage houses.Practical implicationsPractical implications include revisions to building laws in Mount Lebanon, as they marginalize old stone structures. Environmental valuation techniques, use value and existence value, are recommended.Social implicationsSocial awareness needs to be built about valuation techniques to account for complex assets that cannot be approximated through short-term real estate market price. Social rather than financial cost-benefit analysis must be performed to quantify environmental assets.Originality/valueThis research illustrates a pilot restoration project with critical issues faced by heritage stone houses. These assets are underrepresented in building laws which warrants social and environmental activism.

The Role of Cultural Heritage in Sustainable Development: Multidimensional Indicators as Decision-Making Tool

The concept of sustainable development has been the main topic of many international conferences. Although many discussions are related to the role of cultural heritage in sustainable development, they develop only on theoretical level. The answer to the main question, that is if the cultural landscape can play a role in sustainable development, could be positive only if we are able to produce empirical evidence about its contribution to improve economic, social, and environmental productivity of the city. It is necessary to produce empirical evidence to demonstrate that cultural heritage conservation/valorization is an investment and not a cost. To date, there are few researches about the indicators that are able to support the relationship between cultural heritage conservation/regeneration and sustainable development. This paper intends to go beyond this limit and approach this issue in operational terms. It is focused on the role that cultural heritage can play in the sustainable development framework. An assessment framework that is able to capture the multidimensional benefits of cultural landscape conservation/valorization is proposed here starting from the analysis of 40 case studies of culture-led regeneration projects. A matrix of multidimensional indicators (divided into nine categories) about the impacts produced by these 40 cultural heritage conservation/valorization projects and its critical analysis is here proposed, mainly focusing the attention on the double relationship between the tourism sector and climate change. Although the analyses often refer to sustainability, it is not concretely addressed because there is an imbalance among the dimensions: in most cases, only the economic component is highlighted, leaving out the social and environmental dimensions. Furthermore, the impacts related to cultural-led projects are mainly interpreted in terms of tourism and real estate impacts.

Cultural Landscape Preservation: An Evolving Field

As an area of professional focus, cultural landscape practice, which addresses the combined works of humanity and nature, has evolved over three decades. The author, an innovator in that evolution, enumerates benchmarks and identifies current challenges as wide-ranging as the scale and diversity of the cultural landscapes under consideration. Using examples of works and of international engagement, this article describes the importance of community involvement, governance, expertise, planning, regulatory systems, and finance within projects of diverse scale, scope, and context. Global trends such as climate change, urbanization, and human migration, as well as a clarion call for sustainable development, influence our aspirations, opportunities, and projects. With the urban public landscape as valued heritage, works addressing the shared space of human settlements must include multiple perspectives and sustainable imperatives by integrating culture and nature, incorporating tangible and intangible heritage, confronting threats to valued heritage, and managing the stresses of rapid change. This paper applies the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals to guide our professional toolkit of best practices as we seek to balance heritage tourism and community growth in an ongoing effort to steward enduring values and enhance the role of heritage in sustainable development.