Heritage Futures: Comparative Approaches to Natural and Cultural Heritage Practices - Paperback

by Rodney Harrison (Author), Caitlin Desilvey (Author), Cornelius Holtorf (Author)

Preservation of natural and cultural heritage is often said to be something that is done for the future, or on behalf of future generations, but the precise relationship of such practices to the future is rarely reflected upon. Heritage Futures draws on research undertaken over four years by an interdisciplinary, international team of sixteen researchers and more than twenty-five partner organizations to explore the role of heritage and heritage-like practices in building future worlds. Engaging broad themes such as diversity, transformation, profusion and uncertainty, Heritage Futures aims to understand how a range of conservation and preservation practices across a number of countries assemble and resource different kinds of futures, and the possibilities that emerge from such collaborative research for alternative approaches to heritage in the Anthropocene. Case studies include the cryopreservation of endangered DNA in frozen zoos, nuclear waste management, seed biobanking, landscape rewilding, social history collecting, space messaging, endangered language documentation, built and natural heritage management, household keeping and discarding practices, and world heritage site management.

Author Biography

Rodney Harrison is Professor of Heritage Studies at the UCL Institute of Archaeology. Caitlin DeSilvey is Associate Professor of Cultural Geography at the University of Exeter. Cornelius Holtorf is Professor of Archaeology and holds a UNESCO Chair on Heritage Futures at Linnaeus University in Kalmar, Sweden. Sharon Macdonald is Alexander von Humboldt Professor of Social Anthropology and Director of the Centre for Anthropological Research on Museums and Heritage (CARMAH) in the Institute of European Ethnology, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin.