Hostname: page-component-848d4c4894-ndmmz Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-05-14T21:25:14.678Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Conservation and Heritage As Creative Processes of Future-Making

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 October 2020

Cornelius Holtorf
Cornelius Holtorf*
Affiliation:
Linnaeus University, Kalmar, Sweden; Email: cornelius.holtorf@lnu.se
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

According to the logic of the conservation ethics, the heritage sector has the duty to conserve cultural heritage because it has inherent value and constitutes a non-renewable resource that once destroyed cannot be substituted and, therefore, must be preserved for the benefit of future generations. In this article, I argue, however, that the cultural heritage of the past is not a comprehensive legacy that theoretically, at any point, might have been considered complete but, rather, that it can be understood as frequently updated manifestations of changing perceptions of the past over time. The most important question for conservation and heritage management, thus, is not how much heritage of any one period may or may not survive intact into the future but, instead, which heritage, as our legacy to the generations to come, will benefit future societies the most. In particular, I am calling for more research into the possible significance of heritage in addressing some of the social consequences of climate change.

Type
Article
Information
International Journal of Cultural Property , Volume 27 , Special Issue 2: Special Issue: Authenticity and Reconstruction , May 2020 , pp. 277 - 290
Copyright
© International Cultural Property Society 2020

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Footnotes

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS: My argument has benefited in many ways from the frank and constructive discussions among all of the participants of the pilot workshop of the ICOMOS University Forum on a Contemporary Provocation: Reconstructions as Tools of Future-Making, which was held on 13–15 March 2017 in Paris and for which a first draft of this text was written. My thinking has also been inspired by the discussions within our AHRC-funded “Heritage Futures” Research Programme 2015–19 (http://www.heritage-futures.org), which was led by Rodney Harrison. Part of the discussion was contained in Holtorf 2016.

References

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Andersson, Jenny. 2018. The Future of the World. Futurology, Futurists, and the Struggle for the Post-Cold War Imagination. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Araoz, Gustavo. 2008. “Heritage Classifications and the Need to Adjust Them to Emerging Paradigms: The United States Experience.” In Values and Criteria in Heritage Conservation, edited by Tomaszewski, A., 167–82. Florence: Edizioni Polistampa.Google Scholar
Avrami, Erica. 2016. “Making Historical Preservation Sustainable.” Journal of the American Planning Association 82, no. 2: 104–12.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Barthel-Bouchier, Diane. 2013. Cultural Heritage and the Challenge of Sustainability. Walnut Creek, CA: Left Coast.Google Scholar
Boccardi, Giovanni. 2015. “From Mitigation to Adaptation: A New Heritage Paradigm for the Anthropocene.” In Perceptions of Sustainability in Heritage Studies, edited by Albert, M.-T., 87–97. Berlin: De Gruyter.Google Scholar
Cameron, Catherine. 2010. “The Unnatural History of Heritage: What’s the Future for the Past?” Journal of Heritage Tourism 5, no. 3: 203–18. http://doi.10.1080/1743873X.2010.505289.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ceccarelli, Paolo. 2017. “Past Is Not a Frozen Concept: Considerations about Heritage Conservation in a Fast Changing World.” Built Heritage 1, no. 3: 1–12.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Chippindale, Christopher. 2012. Stonehenge Complete. 4th ed. London: Thames and Hudson.Google Scholar
DeSilvey, Caitlin. 2017. Curated Decay: Heritage Beyond Saving. Minneapolis: Minnesota University Press.Google Scholar
DeSilvey, Caitlin, Bartolini, Nadia, and Forthcoming, Antony Lyons. “Transformation.” In Heritage Futures: Comparative Approaches to Natural and Cultural Heritage Practices, edited by Harrison, Rodney, DeSilvey, Caitlin, Holtorf, Cornelius, Macdonald, Sharon, Bartolini, Nadia, Breithoff, Esther, Fredheim, Harald, Lyons, Antony, May, Sarah, Morgan, Jennie, and Penrose, Sefryn, 357–462. London: University College London Press.Google Scholar
Fairclough, Graham. 2009. “Conservation and the British.” In Defining Moments: Dramatic Archaeologies of the Twentieth-Century, edited by Schofield, J., 157–64. Oxford: Archaeopress.Google Scholar
Fluck, Hannah, and Wiggins, Meredith. 2017. “Climate Change, Heritage Policy and Practice in England: Risks and Opportunities.” Archaeological Review from Cambridge 32, no. 2: 159–81.Google Scholar
Fojut, Noel. 2009. “The Philosophical, Political and Pragmatic Roots of the Convention.” In Heritage and Beyond, edited by Council of Europe, 13–22. Strasbourg: Council of Europe Publishing. https://rm.coe.int/16806abdea (accessed 6 March 2019).Google Scholar
Gidley, Jennifer M. 2017. The Future: A Very Short Introduction. Oxford: Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Harrison, Rodney. 2012. “Forgetting to Remember, Remembering to Forget: Late Modern Heritage Practices, Sustainability and the ‘Crisis’ of Accumulation of the Past.” International Journal of Heritage Studies 19, no. 6: 579–95.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Harrison, Rodney. 2013. Heritage. Critical Approaches. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Harrison,  Rodney, DeSilvey, Caitlin, Holtorf, Cornelius, Macdonald, Sharon, Bartolini, Nadia, Breithoff, Esther, Fredheim, Harald, Lyons, Antony, May, Sarah, Morgan, Jennie, and Penrose, Sefryn. Forthcoming. Heritage Futures. Comparative Approaches to Natural and Cultural Heritage Practices. London: University College London Press.Google Scholar
Harvey,  David C., and Perry, Jim. 2015a. “Heritage and Climate Change. The Future Is Not the Past.” In The Future of Heritage as Climates Change: Loss Adaptation and Creativity, edited by Harvey, D. C. and Perry, J., 3–22. London: Routledge.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Harvey,  David C., and Perry, Jim, eds. 2015b. The Future of Heritage as Climates Change. Loss Adaptation and Creativity. London: Routledge.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Högberg, Anders, Holtorf, Cornelius, May, Sarah, and Wollentz, Gustav. 2017. “No Future in Archaeological Heritage Management?” World Archaeology 49, no. 5: 639–47. http://doi.https://doi.org/10.1080/00438243.2017.1406398.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Holtorf, Cornelius. 2006. “Can Less Be More? Heritage in the Age of Terrorism.” Public Archaeology 5: 101–9.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Holtorf, Cornelius. 2012. “The Heritage of Heritage.” Heritage and Society 5, no. 2: 153–73.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Holtorf, Cornelius. 2014. “The Preservation Paradigm in Heritage Management.” In The Encyclopedia of Global Archaeology, edited by Smith, C., 6128–31. New York: Springer.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Holtorf, Cornelius. 2015. “Averting Loss Aversion in Cultural Heritage.” International Journal of Heritage Studies 21, no. 4: 405–21.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Holtorf, Cornelius. 2016. “Why Cultural Heritage Is Not ‘at Risk’ (in Syria or Anywhere).” Heritage for Transformation. https://heritagefortransformation.wordpress.com/2016/04/04/why-cultural-heritage-is-not-at-risk-in-syria-or-anywhere/ (accessed 6 March 2019).Google Scholar
Holtorf, Cornelius. 2018. “Embracing Change: How Cultural Resilience Is Increased through Cultural Heritage.” World Archaeology 50, no. 4: 639–50. http://doi.https://doi.org/10.1080/00438243.2018.1510340.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Holtorf, Cornelius. Forthcoming. “Destruction and Reconstruction of Cultural Heritage as Future-Making.” In The Future of the Bamiyan Buddha Statues: Heritage Reconstruction in Theory and Practice, edited by Nagaoka, M.. New Yok: Springer.Google Scholar
Holtorf, Cornelius, and Fairclough, Graham. 2013. “The New Heritage and Re-shapings of the Past.” In Reclaiming Archaeology: Beyond the Tropes of Modernity, edited by González-Ruibal, A., 197–210. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Holtorf, Cornelius, and Högberg, Anders. 2014. “Communicating with Future Generations: What Are the Benefits of Preserving for Future Generations? Nuclear Power and Beyond.” European Journal of Post-Classical Archaeologies 4: 315–30.Google Scholar
Holtorf, Cornelius, and Högberg, Anders, eds. Forthcoming. Cultural Heritage and the Future. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Holtorf, Cornelius, and May, Sarah. 2020. “Uncertainty, Collaboration and Emerging Issues.” In Heritage Futures: Comparative Approaches to Natural and Cultural Heritage Practices, edited by Harrison, Rodney, DeSilvey, Caitlin, Holtorf, Cornelius, Macdonald, Sharon, Bartolini, Nadia, Breithoff, Esther, Fredheim, Harald, Lyons, Antony, May, Sarah, Morgan, Jennie, and Penrose, Sefryn, 336–43. London: University College London Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jones, Siân, Jeffrey, Stuart, Maxwell, Mhairi, Hale, Alex, and Jones, Cara. 2017. “3D Heritage Visualisation and the Negotiation of Authenticity: The ACCORD Project.” International Journal of Heritage Studies 24, no. 4: 333–53. http://doi.http://doi.org/10.1080/13527258.2017.1378905.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kimball, Michael. 2016. “Our Heritage Is Already Broken: Meditations on a Regenerative Conservation for Cultural and Natural Heritage.” Human Ecology Review 22, no. 2: 47–76.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kono, Toshiyuki. 2019. “Destruction of Cultural Heritage and Recovery: The World Heritage, Authenticity, and ‘Process-Thinking’.” Japanese Yearbook of International Law 62: 6–23.Google Scholar
Lafrenz Samuels, Kathryn. 2018. Mobilizing Heritage. Anthropological Practice and Transnational Prospects. Gainesville: University Press of Florida.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Latour, Bruno, and Lowe, Adam. 2011. “The Migration of the Aura, or How to Explore the Origial through Its Facsimiles.” In Switching Codes: Thinking through New Technologies in the Humanities and Arts, edited by Coover, R., 275–97. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Lavau, Stephanie. 2015. “Climate Change and the Changing Nature of Conservation.” In The Future of Heritage as Climates Change: Loss Adaptation and Creativity, edited by Harvey, D. C. and Perry, J., 111–29. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Loulanski, Tolina. 2006. “Revising the Concept for Cultural Heritage: The Argument for a Functional Approach.” International Journal of Cultural Property 13: 207–33.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lowenthal, David. 1996. The Heritage Crusade and the Spoils of History. London: Viking.Google Scholar
Lowenthal, David. 2015. The Past Is a Foreign Country: Revisited. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Nolan, Christopher, dir. 2014. Interstellar. Los Angeles: Paramount/Warner Brothers.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Piazzoni, Maria Francesca. 2018. The Real Fake: Authenticity and the Production of Space. New York: Fordham.Google Scholar
Rico, Trinidad. 2015. “Heritage at Risk: The Authority and Autonomy of a Dominant Preservation Framework.” In Heritage Keywords: Rhetoric and Redescription in Cultural Heritage, edited by Samuels, K. Lafrenz and Rico, T., 147–62. Boulder: University Press of Colorado.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rockman, Marcy. 2013. “The Necessary Roles of Archaeology in Climate Change Mitigation and Adaptation.” In Archaeology in Society: Its Relevance in the Modern World, edited by Rockman, M. and Flatman, J., 193–215. New York: Springer.Google Scholar
Ross, David, and Saxena, Gunjan. 2019. “Participative Co-Creation of Archaeological Heritage: Case Insights on Creative Tourism in Alentejo, Portugal.” Annals of Tourism Research 79: n.p.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Smith, Laurajane. 2006. Uses of Heritage. London: Routledge.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Thomas, Chris D. 2017. Inheritors of the Earth: How Nature Is Thriving in an Age of Extinction. London: Allen Lane.Google Scholar
Thiele, Leslie P. 2016. Sustainability. 2nd ed. Cambridge, UK: Polity.Google Scholar
Van de Noort, Robert. 2013. Climate Change Archaeology: Building Resilience from Research in the World’s Coastal Wetlands. Oxford: Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Weaver, David B., and Lawton, Laura J.. 2007. “‘Just because It’s Gone Doesn’t Mean It Isn’t There Anymore’: Planning for Attraction Residuality.” Tourism Management 28: 108–17.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Westman, Anna, and Tunón, Håkan, eds. 2009. Ju förr desto bättre: Kulturarvet som resurs för en hållbar framtid. Uppsala: Centrum för biologisk mångfald.Google Scholar
Willer, Stefan. 2016. “Weltkulturerbe.” In Futurologien: Ordnungen des Zukunftswissens, edited by Bühler, S. and Willer, S., 143–53. Paderborn: Fink.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Worthing, Derek, and Bond, Stephen. 2008. Managing Built Heritage: The Role of Cultural Significance. Oxford: Blackwell.CrossRefGoogle Scholar