1st Edition
Cultural Heritage and the Future
Cultural Heritage and the Future brings together an international group of scholars and experts to consider the relationship between cultural heritage and the future.
Drawing on case studies from around the world, the contributing authors insist 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. Until recently, the future has never attracted substantial research and debate within heritage studies and heritage management, and this book addresses this gap by offering a balance of theoretical and empirical content that will stimulate multidisciplinary debate in the burgeoning field of critical heritage studies.
Cultural Heritage and the Future questions the role of heritage in future making and will be of great relevance to academics and students working in the fields of museum and heritage studies, archaeology, anthropology, architecture, conservation studies, sociology, history and geography. Those working in the heritage professions will also find much to interest them within the pages of this book.
List of figures
List of tables
List of contributors
Preface
Cornelius Holtorf and Anders Högberg
1. Introduction: Cultural heritage as a futuristic field
Cornelius Holtorf and Anders Högberg
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 erspective
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
Index
Biography
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.
"This book is … about the various ways to engage with cultural heritage in the light of ‘futures thinking’. Through its carefully selected mix of theoretical and practical case studies, it will undoubtedly become a flagship text for anyone interested in exploring the interconnections between cultural heritage and the future." - Antiquity
"The book is illuminating and provides a valuable compendium and a fascinating timeline for the last decade of thinking." - News in Conservation, International Institute for Conservation of Historic and Artistic Works