No future in archaeological heritage management?

Although the future is mentioned frequently in overarching aims and visions, and it is a major drive in the daily work of archaeological heritage managers and indeed heritage professionals more generally, it remains unclear precisely how an overall commitment to the future can best inform specific heritage practices. It seems that most archaeologists and other heritage professionals cannot easily express how they conceive of the future they work for, and how their work will impact on that future. The future tends to remain implicit in daily practice which operates in a continuing, rolling present. The authors argue that this needs to change because present-day heritage management may be much less beneficial for the future than we commonly expect

Heritage Futures - Comparative Approaches to Natural and Cultural Heritage Practices

This is the final version. Available on open access from UCL Press via the DOI in this recordWe present the book as a co-authored monograph because we acknowledge the collective contributions to the arguments developed within it, and the collaborative nature of the work. This has in itself been an experiment in finding a format in which diverse voices and views could productively speak to one another, while also acknowledging and foregrounding the diversity and range of different views, academic traditions and writing styles of contributors. As principal investigator, Harrison acted as the lead and coordinating author of the book, taking overall responsibilities for its editing and production. The co-investigators (DeSilvey, Holtorf, Macdonald) shared with Harrison editorial responsibilities for the individual thematic parts they each led, and for shaping the intellectual agenda of the book as a whole. However, we also felt it important to indicate the main authors of individual chapters within the book, to make clear specific contributions to the text and its arguments, and to highlight which named individuals were responsible for the empirical work that underpins them. 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 16 researchers and more than 25 partner organisations 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, domestic keeping and discarding practices, and world heritage site management.Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC