Heritage Conservation and Social Engagement

Heritage Conservation and Social Engagement explores different kinds of engagement, participation, access, and creative use of resources motivated by the practice of conservation, and offers ethical and practical perspectives from which to approach cultural heritage projects. The chapters are structured around the themes of engagement and participation, with an emphasis on the value of cross-disciplinary collaborations and the adoption of more encompassing approaches to conservation decision-making. The authors explore the complexities of these collaborations, which are often influenced by the colonial baggage of museums and whose effectiveness vary according to context, objectives, methods and resources available. Given the variable nature of the factors involved, providing evidence for the beneficial impacts of engagement is not always a straightforward task. For a strong body of evidence to be formed, it is essential that conservators continue to create spaces to debate methods that may open new frontiers. Efforts to promote inclusion and engagement through museum collections and the broader heritage sector are becoming even more socially relevant, as in recent years we have observed a rise in intolerance towards minority groups in traditionally democratic societies. The heritage sector is responding strongly, however, as it has the tools to help fight prejudices that are invariably based on misinformation or manipulation of facts. This book joins these efforts, in the knowledge that nothing can be done without dialogue and engagement

Heritage Conservation and Social Engagement

Heritage Conservation and Social Engagement explores different kinds of engagement, participation, access, and creative use of resources motivated by the practice of conservation, and offers ethical and practical perspectives from which to approach cultural heritage projects. The chapters are structured around the themes of engagement and participation, with an emphasis on the value of cross-disciplinary collaborations and the adoption of more encompassing approaches to conservation decision-making. The authors explore the complexities of these collaborations, which are often influenced by the colonial baggage of museums and whose effectiveness vary according to context, objectives, methods and resources available. Given the variable nature of the factors involved, providing evidence for the beneficial impacts of engagement is not always a straightforward task. For a strong body of evidence to be formed, it is essential that conservators continue to create spaces to debate methods that may open new frontiers. Efforts to promote inclusion and engagement through museum collections and the broader heritage sector are becoming even more socially relevant, as in recent years we have observed a rise in intolerance towards minority groups in traditionally democratic societies. The heritage sector is responding strongly, however, as it has the tools to help fight prejudices that are invariably based on misinformation or manipulation of facts. This book joins these efforts, in the knowledge that nothing can be done without dialogue and engagement

Cultural Heritage and Representation in Jamaica: Broaching the Digital Age

This thesis discusses Jamaica’s cultural heritage management in the 21st century and questions how the country’s cultural heritage is represented in today’s digital age. Tracing the development of Jamaica’s cultural policies since the late-colonial period (beginning in the late 1930s), I consider the ways in which the state has managed cultural heritage historically and connect the evolution of theoretical understandings of heritage to explore evolving ideologies of policy and management. I then examine three digital cultural heritage projects in Jamaica to question their representation of heritage material to the local population and the wider world. I argue that these presentations of Jamaica’s cultural heritage illustrate a 21st century neoliberal interplay of cultural heritage, nationalism, and economic development. The projects put forward a restricted and exclusive form of heritage knowledge which re-inscribes historical inequalities. I conclude that cultural heritage organizations and policymakers must incorporate participatory methods to leverage digital technologies to ameliorate ongoing issues of hegemonic representation

Community participatory design in the information systems development process in Africa: a systemic literature review

Participatory design (PO) pertains to the different ways of incorporating ideas and acts of organisational members in designing, developing and evaluating an Information Systems (IS) artefact. The context of this study is community organisations in African settings participating in the designing and developing of an IS artefact. The study traces and synthesises findings from 95 articles on community PO in Information Systems Development in Africa. It argues that community PO consists of vast diverse constructs and implementations. This produced and reproduced concept is formulated in five major themes of: conceptualisations; ethics; standards; checks and balances and approaches; and perspectives and methodologies of PD. The themes constitute the possible ways of classifying PO research and practice in African settings. The results demonstrate that there is a wide belief that participation is one of the vital ingredients necessary for successful designing of IS artefacts for human development. However, the different elements involved in PO involve much discussion on what is known and needs to be known about PO and how to achieve the desired results by PD. The study uses Critical Research philosophy to pay special attention to the behavioural and attitudinal arguments of the different PO practices on community organisations. The researcher found Design Science (OS) principles that centre on devising an artefact as appropriate to frame this work. In sum, through the use of Critical Research and a OS lens, the researcher found that community participation is important in designing a useful IS artefact, but treacherous if misunderstood and inappropriately implemented

University of Malaya Research Bulletin, Volume 17, Number 1, 2017

Previously known as IPPP UM Research Bulleti

A tangible programming environment model informed by principles of perception and meaning

It is a fundamental Human-Computer Interaction problem to design a tangible programming environment for use by multiple persons that can also be individualised. This problem has its origin in the phenomenon that the meaning an object holds can vary across individuals. The Semiotics Research Domain studies the meaning objects hold. This research investigated a solution based on the user designing aspects of the environment at a time after it has been made operational and when the development team is no longer available to implement the user’s design requirements. Also considered is how objects can be positioned so that the collection of objects is interpreted as a program. I therefore explored how some of the principles of relative positioning of objects, as researched in the domains of Psychology and Art, could be applied to tangible programming environments. This study applied the Gestalt principle of perceptual grouping by proximity to the design of tangible programming environments to determine if a tangible programming environment is possible in which the relative positions of personally meaningful objects define the program. I did this by applying the Design Science Research methodology with five iterations and evaluations involving children. The outcome is a model of a Tangible Programming Environment that includes Gestalt principles and Semiotic theory; Semiotic theory explains that the user can choose a physical representation of the program element that carries personal meaning whereas the Gestalt principle of grouping by proximity predicts that objects can be arranged to appear as if linked to each other.School of ComputingPh. D. (Computer Science

ICS Materials. Towards a re-Interpretation of material qualities through interactive, connected, and smart materials.

The domain of materials for design is changing under the influence of an increased technological advancement, miniaturization and democratization. Materials are becoming connected, augmented, computational, interactive, active, responsive, and dynamic. These are ICS Materials, an acronym that stands for Interactive, Connected and Smart. While labs around the world are experimenting with these new materials, there is the need to reflect on their potentials and impact on design. This paper is a first step in this direction: to interpret and describe the qualities of ICS materials, considering their experiential pattern, their expressive sensorial dimension, and their aesthetic of interaction. Through case studies, we analyse and classify these emerging ICS Materials and identified common characteristics, and challenges, e.g. the ability to change over time or their programmability by the designers and users. On that basis, we argue there is the need to reframe and redesign existing models to describe ICS materials, making their qualities emerge

Visual and Artefactual Approaches in Engaging Teachers with Multilingualism: Creating DLCs in Pre-Service Teacher Education

This paper reports on a study of teachers’ engagement with their own multilingualism in a pre-service teacher education context. As linguistic diversity in society and schools around the globe is increasing, teachers are required to meet the challenges of teaching children who live with multiple languages. However, teachers are seldom required to reflect on and engage with their own multilingualism, which forms the basis of a subjective and experiential approach to educating teachers multilingually. Embedded in an arts-based visual methodology, this study used the concept of Dominant Language Constellations (DLCs) as both a theoretical underpinning and a creative qualitative tool for collecting data. It included fourteen DLC artefacts created by future teachers of English in Grades 1–7 and Grades 5–10 in northern Norway, supported by oral and written narratives. Plurisemiotic analysis of teachers’ DLC artefacts indicates that teachers ‘saw’ or perceived themselves as plurilingual individuals for the first time. Furthermore, they reflected on the classroom implications of including multilingual practices in a context of increasing linguistic diversity in Norway, through capitalizing on their own and potentially their learners’ multilingual identities.Visual and Artefactual Approaches in Engaging Teachers with Multilingualism: Creating DLCs in Pre-Service Teacher EducationpublishedVersio

Yhteisöpohjainen ekomatkailu kestävän kehityksen mahdollisuutena Taita-vuorilla, Keniassa

This study aims at identifying the existing and potential resources, as well as recognizing the hinderances, for community-based ecotourism development in the Taita Hills in south-eastern Kenya. The indigenous mountain rain forests on the hills are rich in biodiversity, but severely degraded because of encroachment caused by the dynamics of increased population, socio-politics and economics. The research problems are based on the hypothesis that there is no tourism in the Taita Hills generating income for the local economy and high population density combined with poverty creates a need for alternative employment opportunities as well as for sustainable ways of forest resource management. The data for this study was gathered during two field trips in Kenya, in January-February 2004 and 2005, as a part of the Taita Project within the Department of Geography at the University of Helsinki. The qualitative methods used consist of RRA and PRA techniques, in-depth interviews, a structured questionnaire and literature analysis as well as attendance on excursions and a workshop with conservation experts and officials. Four case areas in the Taita Hills are studied. The study concludes that alternative livelihoods are needed among the Taita Hills' rural population and community-based ecotourism is seen as a way of bringing financial benefits for households as well as reviving the fading cultural traditions and indigenous knowledge about forest use. The governmental policies, district level development plans and some NGOs support ecotourism development. The Forest Act 2005 forms base for local participation in forest management. The unique natural features, the welcoming Taita-culture and the location in the coastal tourism circle favour Taita Hills. However, this kind of development has its risks, such as too rapid change of sorest usage level and the exposure of communities to an ecotourism treadmill process. The costbenefit ration of marketing for hard ecotourists is generally low and the tourism infrastructure needs upgrading in the Taita Hills. More tight collaboration is important between the different level stakeholders working for conservation and development. Community-based ecotourism in Taita Hills, when carefully planned and managed, could be one opportunity for Kenya to diversify its tourism product supply and for forestadjacent communities to gain tangible benefits on a sustainable basis from forests.Tässä tutkimuksessa pyritään tunnistamaan olemassaolevia ja potentiaalisia voimavaroja sekä esteitä yhteisöpohjaisen ekoturismin kehitykselle Taita-vuorilla, kaakkois-Keniassa. Alueen alkuperäiskasvillisuutta edustavat vuoristosademetsät ovat biodiversiteetiltään rikkaita, mutta väestönpaine sekä monenlaiset sosiopoliittiset ja taloudelliset tekijät ovat johtaneet metsien pirstoutumiseen ja monimuotoisuuden alenemiseen. Tutkimusongelmat perustuvat hypoteesiin, jonka mukaan Taita-vuorilla ei harjoiteta paikallistaloutta hyödyntävää matkailua ja korkea väestömäärä sekä köyhyys luovat tarpeen niin vaihtoehtoisille toimeentulomuodoille kuin kestäville metsänkäytön muodoille. Tutkimusaineisto on kerätty kahden Kenian matkan aikana, tammi- ja helmikuussa vuosina 2004 ja 2005. Työ kuuluu Helsingin yliopiston maantieteen laitoksen Taita-projektiin. Laadulliset tutkimusmenetelmät koostuvat RRA- ja PRA-tekniikoista, syvähaastatteluista, strukturoidusta kyselystä ja kirjallisuusanalyysistä. Suojeluasiantuntijoiden ja virkamiesten lausuntoja on kerätty osallistumalla ekskursioille ja työpaja-seminaariin. Ekoturismipotentiaalia tarkastellaan neljän tapaustutkimuksen kautta. Työssä todetaan, että vaihtoehtoisia toimeentulomuotoja tarvitaan Taita-vuorten pienviljelyyn erikoistuneen väestön keskuudessa. Yhteisöpohjainen ekoturismi nähdään talouden kohentamisen keinona samoin kuin hiipuvien kulttuuristen traditioiden ja metsien käyttöä koskevan perinnetiedon esille nostavan voimana. Hallituspolitiikka, kuntatason kehityssuunnitelmat ja useat hallituksesta riippumattomat järjestöt tukevat ajatusta ekoturismin kehittämisestä. Vuoden 2005 metsälaki luo pohjaa paikallisasukkaiden osallistumismahdollisuuksille lähimetsiensä hallintaan. Ainutlaatuinen luonto, ystävällinen Taita-kulttuuri ja sijainti rannikolta luonnonpuistoihin suuntautuvan turistikehän piirissä, suosivat Taita-vuoria matkailumielessä. Ekoturismikehitys alueella sisältää kuitenkin riskejä, kuten metsien käyttöasteen liian nopean muutoksen ja paikallisyhteisöjen ajautumisen turismimylly - prosessiin. Matkailuinfrastruktuurin kohentaminen on välttämätöntä ja kovan linjan ekomatkailijoiden koukuttelu alueelle vaatii hyöty-suhteeltaan kallista markkinointia. Suojelun ja aluekehityksen eri tasojen toimijoilta toivotaan tiivimpää yhteistyötä. Huolellisesti toteutettuna yhteisöpohjainen ekomatkailu voisi kuitenkin olla Kenian valtiolle keino monipuolistaa matkailutarjontaa ja Taita-vuorten paikallisyhteisöille kestävä tapa hyötyä lähimetsistään