Theory and Practice in Heritage and Sustainability

Between past and future

Elizabeth Auclair, Graham Fairclough, Elizabeth Auclair, Graham Fairclough

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2015
• ISBN:
  9781317675914
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Economics
• Subtopic: Sustainable Development
• Index: Economics

This book explores cultural sustainability and its relationships to heritage from a wide interdisciplinary perspective. By examining the interactions between people and communities in the places where they live it exemplifies the diverse ways in which a people-centred heritage builds identities and supports individual and collective memories. It encourages a view of heritage as a process that contributes through cultural sustainability to human well-being and socially- and culturally-sensitive policy.

With theoretically-informed case studies from leading researchers, the book addresses both concepts and practice, in a range of places and contexts including landscape, townscape, museums, industrial sites, every day heritage, 'ordinary' places and the local scene, and even UNESCO-designated sites. The contributors, most of whom, like the editors, were members of the COST Action 'Investigating Cultural Sustainability', demonstrate in a cohesive way how the cultural values that people attach to place are enmeshed with issues of memory, identity and aspiration and how they therefore stand at the centre of sustainability discourse and practice. The cases are drawn from many parts of Europe, but notably from the Baltic, and central and south-eastern Europe, regions with distinctive recent histories and cultural approaches and heritage discourses that offer less well-known but transferable insights. They all illustrate the contribution that dealing with the inheritance of the past can make to a full cultural engagement with sustainable development.

The book provides an introductory framework to guide readers, and a concluding section that draws on the case studies to emphasise their transferability and specificity, and to outline the potential contribution of the examples to future research, practice and policy in cultural sustainability. This is a unique offering for postgraduate students, researchers and professionals interested in heritage management, governance and community participation and cultural sustainability.

Part I Equity, inclusion, citizenship

To start at one possible beginning, and to accept ‘sustainable development’ on its own terms, the Brundtland definition points us towards intergenerational equity and balance (the ‘needs’ of future generations balanced against our own present-day needs, although at least one ‘present day’ need at the most personal and individual level is actually a future need – the survival of your own grandchildren). But the Brundtland definition also implicitly contains a requirement for equity in the present day, for ‘horizontal’ trans-society transfers as well as ‘vertical’ intergenerational transfer. The undefined ‘needs’ mentioned by the Brundtland definition are not on the whole consistent across the globe, through all levels of society, or at different stages of life, or even when filtered through ideology or faith. One person’s need is another person’s excess or dearth; when one set of ‘needs’ is fulfilled, another (often someone else’s) is denied. Exclusion can be a result of perfectly well-meaning policies as well as of deliberate ill-intent. Non-representation, the absence of a voice, or its inability to be heard, is the opposite face of citizenship. Non-human ‘voices’ are even more silent.

All these problems and imbalances are neither fixed for ever nor are they given – they are human constructs, and they are inherited, as much ‘heritage’ as any great painting, national epic or cathedral church. They are also cultural, and as such, once more, solutions must be cultural. Social structures, cultural assumptions, cultural solutions are at some level chosen by people, or at the least tacitly allowed to develop. The case studies, stories and analyses that are collected in this first half of thw book illuminate some of the processes by which this happens and some of the ways in which things might become different. They are all filtered through the book’s concern with heritage as an important aspect both of culture sensu lato and of sustainability; heritage, it might be argued, is the result of previous generations balancing their needs against ours. To ground the concept, most of the discussion in this book leans towards a heritage of place: the everyday presence, acknowledged or silenced, of the remains of the past, tangible or intangible. Place – and its close cognate, landscape – weaves the threads of our inheritance into something which can be used or worn, repaired and passed on; more importantly, it is a collective construct, something which is shared. Places and landscapes belong to everyone, but (unlike buildings and land) are owned by no one; multiple and plural perceptions of a single place must co-exist, thus creating yet another arena for potential imbalance and inequity. The chapters that follow argue in their diverse ways that a culturally focused sustainability offers hopeful ways forward.

1 Ordinary heritage, participation and social cohesion

The suburbs of Paris

Elizabeth Auclair

DOI: 10.4324/9781315771618-2

The problems of the suburbs

Suburbs are now one of the world’s principal human habitats, but the term has many different meanings and can signify various types of area. Generally speaking, when people talk of ‘suburbs’ they mean the extensive residential urban fabric that spreads around the central cities in metropolitan areas (Vieillard Baron 2001). Although most cities are facing various economic and social changes due, for example, to de-industrialisation, urban sprawl, gentrification versus pauperisation or tourism processes, suburban towns have their own distinctive problems. They are specifically affected by rapid and uncontrolled urban expansion, large-scale ‘regeneration’ operations, loss of public spaces, and increased spatial fragmentation and social segregation, and as a result frequently have a negative image.

Against these problems, sustainability is currently becoming the major conceptual frame for urban development policies. Culture and heritage stand as significant issues within sustainability. Many suburban towns counter their negative and despised image by seeking to enhance local heritage, seen in a broad way as urban artefacts but also as the histories, traditions, values and aspirations of the inhabitants. It can be considered as an interesting tool for community cohesion, well-being and quality of urban life. This chapter looks at two examples, examining the policies and actions developed by two institutions in suburban towns on the south side of Paris, the Maison de Banlieue et de l’Architecture in Athis-Mons and the Val de Bièvre Écomusée in Fresnes. It analyses the conditions under which the valorisation of everyday heritage promotes inhabitants’ participation, increases sense of place for the population, develops social cohesion, and reinforces links between neighbourhoods and between different communities.

Urban development and sustainability

During the twentieth century the population of the planet grew fourfold, whereas the urban population multiplied by a factor of twenty. Since 2007, more than half of the world’s population has been urban, a percentage that is still increasing. In many countries, the rate has reached 80 per cent or more. The urban question has thus become one of the major issues of the twenty-first century. In industrialised countries the problems are less severe than in developing countries, but European cities are nevertheless facing economic, social and environmental difficulties. Among the core issues, the increasing amount of land taken up by urbanisation and the economic and social difficulties of some communities seem quite crucial. Many debates concern the ‘economic growth’ issue, and a number of researchers and scientists argue that our societies can no longer be based on a continual growth which seems to heavily impact our environment and increases social inequalities (Jackson 2009). Furthermore, some economists promote the notion of ‘de-growth’ in order to open new and more realistic perspectives for the future of our societies (Latouche 2007). Numerous voices also criticise the emphasis put on economic and financial issues and on the criteria of productivity, competition and efficiency. They call for the promotion of other values that aim at social equity and well-being (Gadrey 2012). The French philosopher Edgar Morin highlighted the tension between the prosaic and the poetic dimensions of our societies. He considers that greater attention must be given to poetic, symbolic and spiritual values (Morin 2000). According to him, there is an urgent need to organise decent living conditions for the population, with greater attention given to cultural issues.

Since the publication of the Brundtland Report in 1987, urban matters have become fully integrated in the discussions on sustainable development. The articulation between the different issues appears complex, however: is it possible in urban territories to ensure the simultaneous achievement of economic development, social cohesion and environmental quality? It seems that the concept of sustainable development, supposed to cover the ‘needs’ of the present and future generations, does not include all human needs. Notably, the cultural dimension is not sufficiently taken into account in urban policies. Environmentally friendly housing developments, often presented as the best illustrations of sustainable development applied to urban territories, generally focus on ecological issues. The high cost of housing in these so-called ‘sustainable sites’ frequently leads to gentrification and social segregation (Emelianoff 2008). Culture is rarely considered as a significant topic in those urban projects. Nevertheless, in times of economic crisis, culture can also be considered as an instrument for economic development. Thus, the concept of ‘creative cities’ developed by Richard Florida has been widely mediatised (Florida 2002), even though many researchers have pointed out the limits and ambiguities of this approach, and the risks inherent in the instrumentalisation of art and culture (Vivant 2009).

However, the situation seems to be progressively changing. For some time already cities have been aware that supporting culture – arts and creativity as well as heritage – is an essential component for local development, and presently many are interested in increasing the articulation between culture and sustainable development (Auclair 2010). A number of cities use Agenda 21 of Culture, a policy frame developed in 2004 by UCLG (United Cities and Local Governments), as a means to reinforce the place of culture within local policies, to promote cultural diversity, and to strengthen local democracy and inhabitants’ participation. Ten years after its first launch, UCLG intends to present a new version of the Agenda 21 for Culture in 2015, in order to help more local communities adopt this tool. Participation has clearly become a major issue for cultural and heritage policies, even though this notion is vague and can signify different approaches ranging from plain information to genuine co-construction of urban projects with the population (Arnstein 1969). A greater attention to the expectations of the local population seems currently to be appearing in public policies dealing notably with urbanism, sustainable development and culture.

The turn to people-centred and place-based approaches

For the past ten years research work has emphasised the general trend in favour of people-centred and place-based approaches. These approaches are being encouraged by a number of international documents and are being developed by different actors, cultural institutions and local governments (Auclair 2011). The aim is to take account of the needs and opinions of the population and to promote new values. Several documents from the Council of Europe and UNESCO have underlined the importance of culture and heritage for sustainability, and have contributed to a widening of these concepts, in particular by proposing people-centred processes with a focus on collective governance and inhabitants’ participation. The European Landscape Convention (ELC), for example, considers landscapes as both the result of and the interaction between natural and human elements, and defines new categories of heritage which shift from a kind of nostalgia favouring mostly ancient and natural landscapes, towards a prospective vision of contemporary territories (Council of Europe 2000). This directly concerns suburban areas. The ELC encourages all actors to take into consideration ‘ordinary’ landscapes and not only exceptional ones, that is landscapes as they are perceived and experienced daily by their inhabitants. Additionally, the Faro Convention on the Value of Cultural Heritage for Society explicitly gives a greater place to citizens in heritage policies (Council of Europe 2005). It requires us to think about indicators other than just aesthetic and historical ones, and to recognise as heritage all elements that make sense and create identity for local populations. Thus, the Faro Convention also introduces the notion of ‘ordinary’ heritage. Both texts suppose a modification of accepted approaches: the ambition is to have citizens and communities participating together with experts in defining the values of heritage, with inhabitants outlining what heritage means for them.

Besides, for UNESCO’s 2005 Convention on the Protection and Promotion of the Diversity of Cultural Expressions, enhancing urban heritage means taking into account the plurality of individual and collective opinions, values and identities. It leads to the valorisation of those social, economic and cultural elements which contribute to shaping urban territories. This can facilitate the dialogue between different neighbourhoods, between communities, between generations, between newcomers and former inhabitants, and promote social cohesion. More recently, in its ‘Recommendation on Historic Urban Landscape’ (HUL) UNESCO has adopted this emerging discourse and aims to promote the integration and valorisation of culture and heritage in urban development policies (UNESCO 2011). HUL also enlarges the range of elements to preserve, and encourages the turn from merely architectural and historical monuments towards social and cultural practices. Thus local policies should be based on ‘respect of the inherited values and traditions of different cultural contexts’. This means mapping ‘the city’s natural, cultural and human resources’ and assessing their vulnerability by means of sustainable development criteria such as socio-economic stress or climate change. The objective is to consider urban areas as ‘common cultural heritage’.

Against a general deterioration in the quality of urban environments, heritage, including its tangible and intangible components, is thus coming more and more to be viewed as ‘a key resource in enhancing the liveability of urban areas’, to continue using the words of the HUL recommendation. HUL furthermore encourages the inclusion of more partners in the decision making and the involvement of inhabitants in the process. The intention is ‘to reach consensus using participatory planning and stakeholders’ consultation on what values to protect for transmission to future generations’, and ‘to establish the appropriate partnerships and local management frameworks for each of the identified projects’. The matter is important because there remains a perception in society that there is real conflict between urban development and heritage preservation – either protecting heritage appears to be an obstacle to new urban projects and is therefore no longer guaranteed, or on the contrary, heritage is considered as a valuable component and finds itself instrumentalised. In both cases, the choices seem determined by economic issues. Indeed, heritage valorisation and cultural tourism has often been considered as just another tool used by cities as a means for economic development. Until recently heritage policies have rarely taken into account local populations.

Even though all these texts and conventions have not yet been signed up to by the French governme...

Table of contents

• Cover Page
• Half-title Page
• Series Page
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Table Of Contents
• List of figures and tables
• List of contributors
• COST statement
• Series introduction by Katriina Soini and Joost Dessein
• Living between past and future: an introduction to heritage and cultural sustainability
• PART I Equity, inclusion, citizenship
• PART II Construction, recovery, resilience
• Index