UNESCO Project Research Articles

Rehabilitation of Heritage Buildings in Conflict Zones: A Case Study of Al-Khader Library in Gaza Strip and Its Impact on Sustainable Development

Rehabilitating heritage buildings is a common practice in developed countries. In contrast, developing countries experiencing conflict lack the financial support and qualified experts to restore heritage buildings. This article focuses on the restoration of the al-Khader building in the Gaza Strip, part of a UNESCO project aimed at preserving historical buildings. This study aims to explore the challenges and impacts of the adaptive reuse of the al-Khader building as a children’s library for the local community and to explore the impact of this project on sustainable development and its importance locally, as well as the role of this building restoration and rehabilitation through Quintuple Helix dimensions. Qualitative methodology was used, including field observation and interviews, to present the project stages during restoration in 2016. The interviews were conducted with library users, employees, and visitors to evaluate their experience in 2019. The research revealed that the restoration process faced several challenges, including a lack of experience and professional workers in conservation work. Despite challenges, the building’s transformation positively affected heritage preservation and the local community, aligning with 11 Sustainable Development Goals—directly with 7 goals (SDGs 4, 7, 8, 11, 12, 16, and 17) and indirectly with 4 goals (SDGs 1, 5, 9, and 13). The findings emphasise the role of the library’s rehabilitation in contributing to the success of the Quintuple Helix in economic and civil society systems and the need to enhance the consideration of government, education, and environmental systems. Finally, this project, which external donors funded, increased awareness among local people of the importance of heritage buildings. Unfortunately, due to the ongoing conflict in Gaza, the current status of the building is unknown. This study, therefore, serves as necessary documentation of the building as it was in 2023 and prior.

評〈生命倫理學：跨文化研究〉

LANGUAGE NOTE | Document text in English; abstract also in Chinese. Embedded in the narration of “Bioethics: Cross Cultural Explorations” is a trilogy of three nuanced and tightly interwoven accounts: (1) a descriptive account, (2) a reflective account, and (3) a futuristic account. Together, they offer invaluable insights into the complexity and challenges in conducting cross-cultural bioethics dialogues. These complexities are illustrated through Father Joseph Tham’s 12-year-long engagement with the project “Bioethics, Multiculturalism and Religion” in his capacity as Chair of the UNESCO project in Bioethics and Human Rights. (Abstract taken from first paragraph of document) 本文評論了Tham的豐富論述，及其深刻解説後現代世界道德多元化和多元文化為跨文化生命倫理學對話帶來的複雜性和挑戰。本文亦回應了Tham提出應如何重塑跨文化接觸的本質、使命、目標和方法的關鍵問題，以協和道德普遍性和多元性之間的緊張關係，並深化參與及對話，以促進有成效的跨文化接觸。

Hellenistic and Roman Gerasa: The Archaeology and History of a Decapolis City. Edited by Achim Lichtenberger and Rubina Raja. Turnhout: Brepols 2020. Pp. xviii + 390. €110. ISBN 978-2-503-58504-8 (paper).

<i>Hellenistic and Roman Gerasa: The Archaeology and History of a Decapolis City</i>. Edited by Achim Lichtenberger and Rubina Raja. Turnhout: Brepols 2020. Pp. xviii + 390. €110. ISBN 978-2-503-58504-8 (paper).

Fishing for survival: The forgotten slaves of Tromelin Island (Indian Ocean)

AbstractBetween 2006 and 2013, the island of Tromelin (Indian Ocean) was surveyed and excavated within the framework of the UNESCO project “Forgotten Slaves.” Archaeozoological studies evidenced the survival behaviours and subsistence strategies implemented by the l'Utile shipwreck victims abandoned on the island between 1761 and 1776. The ichthyoarchaeological analysis of 4,282 fish bones resulted in the identification of individuals belonging to 24 families of Teleostei and Chondrichthyes, among which Carangidae (jacks) largely dominate, followed by Serranidae (groupers), Acanthuridae (surgeonfishes), Balistidae (triggerfishes), Lutjanidae (snappers), and Pomacentridae (damselfishes). All of the cranial and postcranial elements were examined, and the taxonomic determination led to genus and species level attributions whenever possible. The composition of the assemblage, the ecology of the taxa, the nature of the nearby marine biotopes, and the fishing gear unearthed on the site provided helpful data to characterise the probable fishing techniques used by the survivors. Although line fishing along the drop‐off and offshore with a watercraft might have been practiced widely by the Malagasy slaves, spearing and/or harpooning on the sandbank and coral reef, as well as hand gathering in the tidal pools off the reef flat surrounding the island, could also have greatly contributed to the overall catch. The results of this study reveal that this broad‐spectrum exploitation of marine resources was opportunist, though it required skill and knowledge. They also shed light on the adaptation of the castaways to survive extreme conditions.

Together but Apart: Balkan Historians, the Global South, and unesco’s History of Humanity, 1978–1989

The article analyzes the involvement of Southeast European historians in unesco’s History of Humanity: Scientific and Cultural Development, the second attempt of the organization at drafting a world history. It is a case study of a successful epistemic internationalization of regional and national narratives from the Balkans on a global stage. It is argued that this story is premised on the activity of the International Association of Southeast European Studies (aiesee—created in 1963 with unesco sponsorship), which functioned as the preexistent international milieu of conceptual, institutional, and personnel alignments. However, regional academic cooperation was dependent on the political context in the Balkans since the end of the seventies. Individual regimes employed scholars as experts representing these countries in this unesco project. In addition, the analysis also emphasizes the similarities and cross-fertilizations between Global South and Southeast European historians’ self-affirmations in the context of shifting narratives about humanity, cultures, and civilizations within unesco. However, while the “Third World” wanted to shatter Eurocentrism as the South challenged the North, the Southeast wished to affirm its Europeanness by breaking the Western and Soviet perceived monopoly on Europe-talk. Balkan historians’ anti-hegemonic association with Global South peers targeted de-marginalization within the confines of Europe. The article underlines that a full account of local narratives and phenomena should be examined in the context of the intersecting stories of the Cold War, decolonization, and globalization.

Desarrollo de un Instituto supranacional para la salvaguarda de los archivos y colecciones audiovisuales para América Latina y el

Se presenta el trabajo que identifica los principales elementos para la creación del Instituto Latinoamericano y Caribeño del Patrimonio Audiovisual, proyecto presentado a la UNESCO con el fin de implementar una institución que sirva de herramienta para la salvaguarda de los principales contenidos de las colecciones audiovisuales de la Región. Se identifica la oportunidad, la necesidad así como la estructura, organización y principales objetivos del Instituto. Igualmente se identifican algunas instituciones supranacionales que podrían financiar y mantener en el tiempo una institución que cuenta con la finalidad de preservar la Memoria y Patrimonio Audiovisual de los países iberoamericanos. El objetivo por tanto es identificar las características de una institución para la preservación de las colecciones audiovisuales y sonoras que están en peligro en la región latinoamericana.

‘To correct, punish and praise’ LRC leaders experiences and expressions of non-heterosexuality in Namibian schools

ABSTRACTLearner representative councils (LRCs) have been constituted to foster democratic participation and citizenry in Namibian schools. Drawing on a larger UNESCO project that focused on gender violence and schooling, we report on focus group interviews with LRC members in schools in Windhoek. Working with how heterosexuality is normalised and constituted as dominant in schools, we explore how LRCs in Namibian schools respond to and confront non-heterosexuality. The findings show broader societal heterosexism and heteronormativity reflected in the attitudes and responses of the LRC leaders who draw on heteronormative discourses to regulate, silence and rehabilitate non-heterosexuality. Invoking Foucault’s use of pleasure, our article provides insights for how the role of the LRC can be broadened to create socially just and inclusive schooling for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender youth.

Tolerance as an Important Component of Professional Competence of the Graduate of the Teacher’s Institute

Background/Objectives: The purpose of the present article is to substantiate students' professional competences in the field of multicultural education of children and formation of principles of tolerance. Methods/Statistical Analysis: To justify the proposed approach, we offer the course Formation of tolerance among preschool children. We have conducted survey among the students at the beginning and the end of this course. We adhere to the principles of human security concept as a new avenue in the international and national security, and are involved in the UNESCO project on the International Decade for a Culture of Peace and Non-Violence. Findings: The article substantiates the working system of the university in multicultural education. The activities of the Department on International Relations, Institute of Oriental Studies, University of the Arctic, UNESCO chair, French Resource Center, the scholarship programs of the French Embassy, the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD), the Fulbright program, the Aurora project, involving cooperation with universities in Europe, and the on-line learning programs of foreign universities are aimed at development of academic mobility of students and teachers. Challenging research on intercultural communication is carried out in the scientific school of Self-development in a Multilingual Environment. North-Eastern Federal University is a member institution of the University of the Arctic - International Open University, which aims at cooperation of the universities of the Arctic region of the world. In the framework of the University of the Arctic, more than 100 students participated in the exchange program North to North, having the opportunity to study in foreign universities. Application/Improvements: Multicultural education system in vocational education will allow for quality training of students, formation of civil stance in future teachers aimed at training tolerance, respect between peoples, peace, friendship, solidarity.

Silk Roads in the Kingdom of Bhutan and the Development of a National Heritage Inventory

A UNESCO project, Support for the Preparation for the World Heritage Serial Nomination of the Silk Roads in South Asia, afforded the opportunity to research evidence for Silk Roads exchange in South Asia. The first part of the paper explores the challenges of archaeology in the Kingdom of Bhutan, located on the southern slopes of the eastern Himalayas. GIS-based approaches to model earlier settlement patterns and trade routes are considered. This led to a discussion with Bhutanese colleagues, in the Division for Conservation of Heritage Sites (DCHS), regarding the need for a digital national heritage inventory: to help manage and protect heritage resources, and to improve the communication of the rich heritage of the country to its people. The second part of this paper explores some of the issues around that debate, and the steps taken to implement the chosen solution: the Getty Conservation Institute/World Monuments Fund ARCHES heritage inventory system.

English

English

Portuguese

DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.14244/198271991213 The paper presents a partial summary of the details of an ongoing survey aimed to analyze the research on children and childhood at the UNESCO research program implemented in Brazil, known as “UNESCO Race relations Project” (MAIO, 2004), in partnership with Revista Anhembi, from Sao Paulo, Brazil, between 1950 and 1953. We integrate a genealogical methodology in order to recover the ideas that anticipated thinking about race relations and children from Virginia Leone Bicudo’s (1955) “Atitudes dos alunos dos grupos escolares em relacao com a cor dos seus colegas” (“Attitudes of schoolchildren regarding the color of their schoolmates”) and Aniela Meyer Ginsberg’s (1955) “Pesquisas sobre as atitudes de um grupo de escolares de Sao Paulo em relacao com as criancas de cor” (“Research on the attitudes of a group of schoolchildren of Sao Paulo towards colored children”). The studies indicate a protagonism of racial thinking about children’s ways of socialization, a central theme to contemporary studies, the agency of the child and, in a specific way, the specificity of the agency in terms of race relations. These studies have a precursor character, as they investigate categories as race, gender, nationality, age and social class in an articulate way. Our emphasis is to constitute the historical context in which the Brazilian social sciences developed as a field of study and research in which the issues regarding children and their childhoods are marked by the variability of gender, race, and social class experiences. We seek to conciliate a diachronic sequence in which the authors’ investigations are inserted within the themes of contemporary research on childhood and race relations. Keywords : Race relations, Childhood, UNESCO project. /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:Tabela normal; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-priority:99; mso-style-qformat:yes; mso-style-parent:; mso-padding-alt:0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; mso-para-margin-top:0cm; mso-para-margin-right:0cm; mso-para-margin-bottom:10.0pt; mso-para-margin-left:0cm; line-height:115%; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:11.0pt; font-family:Calibri,sans-serif; mso-ascii-font-family:Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family:Times New Roman; mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-fareast; mso-hansi-font-family:Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family:Times New Roman; mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;}

Services Evolution of Two Groundwater Dependent Wetland Ecosystems in the “Mancha Húmeda” Biosphere Reserve (Spain)

A wetland that does not comply with the ecological standards of EU Directive 2000/60/EC cannot properly provide its services. This paper presents a review of the criteria for wetland assessment based on the Spanish experience in two specific Ramsar areas: the Tablas de Daimiel and the Ruidera Lakes. The aim of this article is to consider and promote a holistic awareness of the hydrological cycle and of the wetland area ecosystems within it. The methodology developed under the umbrella of the UNESCO project IGCP 604 is applied to describe the groundwater-wetland-human interrelationship. This methodology was chosen for two reasons: (a) it is designed to assess the services the wetlands provide; (b) it focuses on groundwater dependent wetlands such as the two cases presented here. In each case, although to a different extent, agricultural activities and water management have led to important changes in the services provided by the two ecosystems.

To Mainstream or not to Mainstream Gender in the Higher Education Curriculum?

Abstract This article presents the results of a UNESCO project that focused on gender mainstreaming higher education curriculum. It deals with some critical issues involved in addressing the problem: what type of gender should be mainstreamed, who should do it, how can it be done and what costs are involved? The premise of the article is that looking at curriculum from a gender perspective is beneficial for the adaptation of academic knowledge to the current requirements of the labour market. One conclusion is that there is still a long way to go before gender will be regarded as legitimate knowledge in higher education.

La formación de profesores en educación en medios: currículo y experiencias internacionales

n April 2008, Perez-Tornero received an urgent commission from UNESCO to draft a textbase to develop a curriculum for teacher training in media and information literacy. There were already some precedents in the shape of previous work carried out by Perez-Tornero for UNESCO. In 2002, in a joint UNESCO and European Commission project, MENTOR, Perez-Tornero and Tayie led a group of international experts who prepared a media education curriculum for teachers in the Mediterranean area. In 2004, Perez-Tornero conducted another study for the European Commission, promoting Digital Literacy, in which he stated the need to foster a change in media culture and communication skills for which the training of teachers was crucial. This issue had arisen in another study conducted by the same author, also for the European Commission («Study on Current Trends and Approaches to Media Literacy in Europe») in which teacher training and the development of a curriculum on media information literacy was deemed essential. But there were other more significant precedents. In fact, since UNESCO began to deal with media education on an international level (the Grunwald Declaration in 1982 followed in 1990 by Toulouse; Vienna, 1999; Seville, 2002 and Paris, 2007), the need for a media education curriculum and teacher training has gained in urgency, supported by proposals from pioneering studies on the subject by Masterman, Pugente, Duncan, Balzaguette, Gonnet and others. Why precisely in 2008 did UNESCO launch the idea of developing a global curriculum with regard to the training of teachers? Certainly, the reasons are many but some are truly striking: A) In 2008, the Summit of the Information Society of the United Nations (Geneva, 2002 and Tunis, 2005) had already been overtaken by the need to constitute societies of knowledge in which media and information literacy was to be decisive; B)At that time almost all education systems worldwide were undertaking curricular reforms that placed the development of student skills at the center of the system, among the most important being the digital skills related to new media; C) It was also unquestionably the time to integrate the Internet and ICTs in the classroom. For that reason, the renewal of skills and the training of teachers became a must; D) Furthermore, the development of Web 2.0 (whose concept emerged in 2004) was rendering obsolete the out-dated distinction between education’s usage of the media, and education and its position with respect to the media, because for the first time media could be used in a general and creative way in terms of educational systems that was not just responsive. Teachers and students could now become producers, creators and communicators; E) At that time, the globalization of the media had taken such a giant step forward that upgrading universal education strategies I DOI: 10.3916/C39-2012-02-00

Websites of note

Websites of note

Information Management Systems for Cultural Heritage and Conservation of World Heritage Sites. The Silk Roads Case Study

This paper discusses the application of Information Management Systems (IMS) in cultural heritage. IMS offer a set of tools for understanding, inventorying and documenting national, regional and World Heritage properties. Information Management Systems can assist State Parties, stakeholders and heritage site managers involved in cultural heritage management and conservation by easily mining, sharing and exchanging information from multiple sources based on international standards. Moreover, they aim to record, manage, visualize, analyze and disseminate heritage information. In close collaboration with five Central Asian countries, namely, Turkmenistan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan and Tajikistan; a Belgian consortium headed by the Raymond Lemaire International Centre for Conservation (RLICC), K.U.Leuven is developing the Silk Roads Cultural Heritage Resource Information System (CHRIS). This Web-based Information Management System supports the preparation of the Central Asia Silk Roads serial and transnational nominations on the UNESCO World Heritage list. The project has been set up thanks to the financial support of the Belgian Federal Science Policy Office (BELSPO) and in collaboration with UNESCO World Heritage Centre in conjunction with the People’s Republic of China and the Japanese Funds-in-Trust UNESCO project. It provides a holistic approach for the recording, documenta tion, protection and monitoring tasks as part of the management of these potential World Heritage Properties. The Silk Roads CHRIS is easily accessible to the general user, presented in a bilingual English and Russian frame and interoperable, i.e. open for other applications to connect to. In this way, all information for the nomination dossiers is easily verified regarding consistency and quality and ready for managing, periodic reporting and monitoring processes in the respect to the property listed. Fina lly, this study provides a general framework to establish the effectiveness and limits of the use of information systems for serial transnational nominations of World Heritage Properties and to demonstrate the potentials of an improved heritage documentation system.

Dual Identities: The Question of ‘Départementalisation’ in Michel Leiris's Contacts de civilisations en Martinique et en Guadeloupe

In Contocts de civilisations en Martinique et en Guadeloupe (1955) Leiris's support for ‘départementalisation’ and cultural assimilation contrasts surprisingly with his previous commitment to celebrating cultural difference and to political independence for France's colonies. It can to some extent be explained by the book's being commissioned as part of a UNESCO project to combat racism by promoting integration, and by the support of the French Communist Party for departmentalisation. But Césaire, Leiris's close friend and Antillean mentor, was already thoroughly disillusioned with departmentalisation; and there was other evidence that it was not achieving the racial and social equality that had motivated the left's support for it. Ultimately Leiris's position can be explained only on a subjective level: the ambiguous identity, simultaneously French and not-French, of the people of the ‘départements d'outre mer’ (DOMs) offered him a particular kind of psychological investment in an uncanny combination of the strange and the secretly familiar.

Florestan Fernandes, Oracy Nogueira, and the UNESCO Project on Race Relations in São Paulo

Analysis of the work of Florestan Fernandes (1920—1995) and Oracy Nogueira (1917—1996) on race relations in São Paulo in the context of the UNESCO project in which both participated sheds light on the link between the institutionalization of the social sciences in Brazil and the sociologists’ social engagement with subaltern sectors represented in the research on blacks. It also reveals that the two men held different views on the relationship between race and class. While in Fernandes’s work race was subsumed under class, in Nogueira’s it was an independent variable. Thus the UNESCO research called attention to differing interpretations of Brazilian racism.

Paleoclimates of the Cretaceous in East Asia (UNESCO and IUGS project No. 507)

The Second International Symposium on UNESCO and IUGS Project no. 507 was held on August 20–25, 2007, in Seoul, South Korea. The topic of the symposium was “Paleoclimates of the Cretaceous in Asia and Their Global Correlation.” Approximately 70 scientists, graduate students, and students from nine countries joined the symposium: Russia (1), Mongolia (1), Switzerland (1), Vietnam (1), Phillippines (1), Indonesia (2), China (3), Japan (11), South Korea (approximately 40). The meetings were held in a building of Seoul National University (Photo 1) located in a picturesque suburb of Seoul at piedmonts of the Gwanak Mountains composed of Precambrian gneisses.

In search of journalism education excellence in Africa: Summary of the 2006 Unesco project

In 2006, Unesco contracted two universities to research African journalism schools, Rhodes University's School of Journalism and Media Studies (RU) and Ecole Supérieure de Journalisme de Lille (ESJ). The major outcome of the research was intended to be a list of potential Centres of Excellence in African journalism education. However, to reach this point, two preliminary stages were required: first, to map the universe of African schools, and second, to define the criteria and indicators for what would constitute such centres. For the purposes of this overview, focus will be on the mapping part of the project, reporting on some of the issues involved and the significance of this part of the research. The full report of the project is available online at: www.Unesco.org/webworld/en/african-journalism-schools-report.