Heritage researchers, stakeholders and public interaction
CALL FOR PAPERS
Chairs: R.J. van Lanen | J.E. Abrahamse | B.J. Groenewoudt | M.C. Kosian
“As a reflection of European identity and diversity, the landscape is our living natural and cultural heritage, be it ordinary or outstanding, urban or rural, on land or in water. (…) No longer the preserve of experts, landscape is now a policy area in its own right” (European Landscape Convention, Florence 2000).
Landscape can be seen as the integrating framework for natural, geographical, archaeological, urban and built heritage. The ELC has launched an instrument called “landscape quality objective”, which is used to describe the ambitions for a certain landscape. Landscape protection and landscape management are no longer preserved to professional researchers or policy makers; involvement of the public is one of the ELC’s objectives and a general trend throughout Europe. The ELC urges countries to make efforts to include heritage in landscape and urban planning. In the Netherlands for instance, heritage policy has been decentralized, the central government delegated the power of decision to local government, while staying in charge of policy and research. The Cultural Heritage Agency of the Netherlands – part of the Ministry of Education and Science – is (among many other things) involved in research that is exemplary in method, content and form. Since the Florence Convention also states that research must be executed in conjunction with local inhabitants and other stakeholders, any heritage researcher engaged in archaeology, landscape or historic buildings, needs to convey knowledge or data in an appealing way. Not only in order to convince governments, landscape and city planners, landowners and architects of the value of heritage and its relevance in planning, but also to create heritage awareness and support with the general public.
In this session, we invite researchers to come forward with inspiring examples of their successful interaction (or even integration) of research and communication strategies, or its products (e.g. data portals, books, repositories, visualizations). This session will focus on heritage projects that are (partly) initiated or funded by governments. The aim of this session will be to identify, analyse and compare these methods and their effects throughout Europe.