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3rd HERMES Symposium: Politics of Heritage and Regional Development Strategies in Sofia 2006

 

  

      Shop in Sofia at street level 

 

The 3rd HERMES Symposium about Politics of Heritage and Regional Development Strategies – Actors, Interests, Conflicts took place in Sofia, Bulgaria, 9th-10th June 20

The symposium was held under the patronage of Mr Asen Gagauzov, Minister of Regional Development and Public Works of the Republic of Bulgaria, and with kind support from the Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Bulgaria.

 

Organisers:

 

Contact

Please contact Sebastian Schröder-Esch, M.A., M.E.S. for further information go to http://www.swkk.de/hermes/lang_en/seite4.html .

Background & organisation 

The symposium was the third of four academic symposia organised by the HERMES project (‘Heritage and New Media for Sustainable Regional Development’). HERMES is a joint initiative by 16 institutions from eight countries and is part financed by the European Commission from 2004-2006 as part of the community initiative Interreg III B CADSES. HERMES investigates innovative ways of preserving and enhancing cultural heritage through the use of new media technology. The aim is to explore the potential of cultural heritage as a factor for sustainable regional development.

A synthesis of contributions made and discussed at the symposia will be used to evaluate HERMES as well as to formulate possible policy recommendations. This includes examining the attitude of HERMES towards the political dimension of heritage and exploring how HERMES can influence decision-making processes in the fields of heritage and regional policy.

Concept of the Symposium:Heritage and politics – the politics of heritage

The concept of heritage addresses many different dimensions. Heritage sites and objects, or cultural patrimony in a wider sense, usually encompass the aspects of time (history in particular), aesthetics and the arts, moral, religion and identity, education, entertainment etc. All of these can be subsumed under the label of ‘culture’ in that they are all related to the issue of meaning. As such, we can conceptualise ‘heritage’ as the meaning attributed to various kinds of phenomena. But, where does this meaning come from? Where does it ‘go’? Who has an interest in its content? What happens if more than one meaning is projected onto a particular heritage? And who is responsible for certain representations of the world as heritage,and through heritage?

All these questions (and many more) relate to what one might term ‘the politics of heritage’ – i.e., heritage as sociallyconstructed meaning embedded in issues of identity and power in societies, and as such often conflicting and contested.

Heritage can be viewed as an expression of (often divergent) interests in society, and as an instrument for furthering these interests.

A specific dimension of the politics of heritage is the issue of spatial planning and regional development. At present, it remains unclear to what extent heritage is considered a development asset by agencies of planning and development at various levels.

An important question in this context, especially with regard to the political dimension of heritage, is to determine whichfunctions cultural patrimony actually intends to fulfil? What are the main benefits of and obstacles to including heritage indevelopment strategies?

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3rd HERMES Symposium - Conference topics

In addition to exchanging views and opinions, the symposium also intends to elaborate policy recommendations for integrating heritage into spatial planning processes and regional development strategies. Possible topics which papers may cover include:

The politics of heritage

Negotiating the meaning of ‘heritage’ in society: Which voices are strongest in determining categories and content of heritage, and which voices are excluded? Whose messages are transmitted through heritage? The significance of a national framework for the identification and interpretation of heritage in various European countries: How does it relate to the local/regional level on the one hand, and to the supranational (European) level on the other?

Dealing with heritage: Who decides how this is done? Who owns the heritage? Who are the main agencies and stakeholders (at different levels)?

The significance of heritage for identity-building and the legitimation (or the questioning) of power structures: Whose interests and which purpose does heritage serve? How does heritage relate to the politics of remembering and forgetting, on an official as well as private basis?

Heritage as an issue of contestantion: What conflicts (social, ethnic etc.) are involved in issues of heritage, i.e. in terms of inclusion/exclusion and the representation of the ‘Other’? Can heritage also help to settle social conflicts?

The question of the ‘scale’ of heritage, i.e. local, regional, national, international, European, global/universal heritage etc.

Heritage and the media: How do (mass) media function as a means of representing the past and constructing heritage? To what extent are they subject to politicization?

Heritage in spatial planning and local & regional development

Heritage as an issue in political decision-making on the national and the supra-national level in present-day Europe:

What are the basic principles and main expectations towards heritage and the way it is dealt with?

Heritage and spatial planning in present-day Europe: How important is it on the national and the supra-national level? How is it defined and conceptualised, for instance, in the European Spatial Development Perspective (ESDP)?

The dissonance of heritage: How do political actors deal with the discordance between the economic and the cultural functions of heritage? What can be done in the case of conflicts of interest and contested meanings? The sale and consumption of heritage (e.g. by the tourist industry): What influence (or control) do political agencies have? Heritage as an asset in strategies of place-marketing and development: To what extent is heritage (officially) recognised as such? Does it (necessarily) enforce the neo-liberal concept of ‘inter-regional competition’ and ‘regional competitiveness’?

Funding heritage: Who sets the priorities for work in the heritage sector? Who reaps the benefits, who bears the cost?

 

Programme

Friday, 9th June 2006

8.00 a.m.-9.00 a.m.: registration of participants

9.00 a.m.: OPENING SESSION

Peter Anders (Goethe-Institute Sofia): Welcome address 

Asen Gagauzov, Minister (Ministry of Regional Develop­ment and Public Works of the Republic of Bulgaria): Welcome address

N.N. (Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Bulgaria): Welcome address

Arch. Peter Dikov (Chief architect of Sofia/BG): Welcome address

Arch. Borislav Borisov (National Centre for Regional Development/BG): Welcome address

N.N. (Bulgarian National Radio/BG): Welcome address

Burkhardt Kolbmüller (Classic Foundation Weimar, Weimar/D): Welcome address

 

10.00 a.m.–12.00 noon: SESSION 1

(chair: N.N.)

Sebastian Schröder-Esch (Bauhaus University Weimar/D): The political dimension of heritage – mapping the field

Gregory J. Ashworth (University of Groningen/NL): ‘Let’s use our pasts to shape our futures’: between contra­diction and synergy

Leonora Boneva-Trayanova (National Museum of History, Sofia/BG): Meaning-making and the construction of heritage as socio-cultural mission

Darko Babić (University of Zagreb/HR): Can heritage bring peace and prosperity?

~~ 12.00–1.30 p.m.: lunch break ~~

1.30 p.m.–3.30 p.m.: SESSION 2

(chair: N.N.)

Sevil Yesim Dizdaroglu (Brandenburg Technical University Cottbus/D): The role of cultural heritage in identity creation in a post-colonial state. The case of Jordan

Svetlana Mitkova Toncheva & Nikolay Vukov (Institute of Folklore, Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, Sofia/BG): Town centres and post-socialist heritage: the reworking of memorial landscapes in post-socialist Bulgaria

Levente Polyák (Institute of Sociology, ELTE University of Budapest/HU): Heritage as argument, heritage as authority: notions and positions in contemporary Budapest urban planning discourse

Łucja Piekarska-Duraj (Małopolska Institute of Culture, Krakow/PL): Steel irony captured in space: a narrative for visions of Nowa Huta

~~ coffee break (30 min) ~~

4.00 p.m.–6.00 p.m.: SESSION 3

(chair: N.N.)

Monika de Frantz (Bauhaus-University Weimar/DE; Lon­don School of Economics and Political Science/UK): Austria’s Eastern border: regional development, multi-na­tional heritage and minority politics

Craig Young, Duncan Light (Manchester Metropolitan University/UK): The dissonant heritage of ‘Communist heritage tourism’

Sybille Frank (Institute of Sociology, TU Darmstadt/D): Communist heritage tourism and its local (dis)contents at Checkpoint Charlie, Berlin

Philippe-Bernd Schmidt (Institute for European Urban Studies, Bauhaus-University Weimar/D): Cultural Heritage and the challenge of compromise build­ing. The case of the Weimar ‘Gauforum’

 

Evening dinner outside but nearly in the rain

 

   

    Gregory Ashworth

   

    Svetlana Dicheva and Svetla (foreground, on the right)

   

    Vasilis Sgouris and Trifon Trifonov

 

Saturday, 10th June 2006

9.00 a.m.–11.00 a.m.: SESSION 4

(chair: Sebastian Schröder-Esch)

Monika Smoleń & Karolina Tylus (Polish Ministry of Culture, Warsaw/PL): Culture as a factor for local & regional development. A case study of Poland

                 

                 Monika Smolen and Karolina Tylus

Jelisaveta Mihajlović (Serbia Nostra / Europa Nostra in Serbia/YU): Values-led regeneration: unlocking the values of the historic towns

Jernej Zupančič (University of Ljubljana/SLO): From tragedies to common perspectives: natural and historical heritage of Kočevsko, Slovenia

Miglena Ivanova (Institute of Folklore, Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, Sofia/BG): Representing the Bulgarian nation and its regions. Uses of traditional culture as heritage

~~ coffee break (15 min) ~~

11.15 a.m.–1.15 p.m.: SESSION 5

(chair: Miriana Iordanova, Sebastian Schröder-Esch)

Maria Karazlateva (Ministry of Culture, Sofia/BG): Investigation and Exposition Problems of the Archaeo­logical Heritage in Urban Surroundings

Vasilis Sgouris (DEMEKAV, Volos/GR): Cultural Heritage as a Factor of Local Development in the City of Volos

Nelly Nedelcheva (Executive Agency of PHARE Program, Manager’s office, Ministry of Regional Development, Sofia/BG): Results of the 1st National Gratuitous Scheme for Cultural Tourism Development in Bulgaria

Hatto Fischer (DEMEKAV, Volos/GR): Politics of Development and Use of Cultural Heritage: Children Growing up in what World?

                

                Hatto Fischer

Dimitar Dimitrov (National Centre for Regional Development, Sofia/BG): The Cultural Heritage – among the Main Criterions of the Bulgarian Municipalities’ Development Plans 2007-2013

Ivan Kabakov (Department of Cultural Studies, Faculty of Philosophy, Sofia University “St. Klement Ochridski”, Sofia/BG): Cultural Diversity Politics 

~~ 1.15 p.m.–2.30 p.m.: lunch break ~~

2.30 p.m.– ~11 p.m. : FIELD TRIP TO ASSENOVGRAD AND PLOVDIV

       

        Jan Brüggemeier -the 'alright' man

 

Some recollections of first impressions

A half-day bus excursion to Plovdiv took place after heavy rain had flooded most of the main streets, and only our bus seemed to be able to get through. Many vehicles were stranded like bugs turned upside down, simply helpless. It reflected a badly planned transportation system.

In the bus many discussions took place while landscapes pulled past as if dream like images of wide spread fields gently disappearing at a distance. One could imagine Bulgaria undergoing huge transitions especially to be experienced on hand of who was coming to buy up land and properties.

Luckily by the time we reached Plovdiv - and I wondered how the bus made it through the narrow streets and past parked cars - the rain clouds had vanished and out came the sun.

Due to what people referred to while walking through Plovdiv towards the core centre, I recall that there was always present a kind of wondering in our minds. For there was a strange kind of beauty existing side by side the suspicion that only corruption would allow the system to function. Things did not seem to fit together.

There was a general poverty or low level of existence to be spotted everywhere. In the city people survived on a low income while in the rural countrysite one could encounter many more impoverished people. Some of these things had been hinted at during the lectures, but only barely. Like all Eastern European countries, Bulgaria seemed to be overdemanded by relicts of the past. At least aesthetics of the traditional vision of wealth seemed to overdominate everything else as if not coming free from shackles of the past. It prevented society to reinvent itself. And as foreigners it was also obvious that fore mostly social status and connections to the West counted the most, while jealousy of the others for having better connections or other means affected in a bad sense social relationships. But then this combination of infights and struggle to maintain links to the outside world defined the go ahead program justified by a certain claim to pride, if only to survive at all under 'normal' circumstances.

Plovdiv had been much talked about due to its surrounding landscape, traditional buildings and cultural heritage - a richness which made it into a place of tourist attraction under modern conditions.Thus a graffiti depicting Charlie Chaplin greeted us when entering Plovdiv, but then this image sustained also a kind of resistance against hard pressed times. Charlie Chaplin himself was a part of that subversive art to counter dictatorship. Reference to him in 2006 would have to be decoded in order to understand what this means in terms of the crisis - political, economical, moral - Bulgaria was going through.

                                                     Graffiti in Plovdiv   

 

Plovdiv can also be seen as an example as what ruin such a place rich in cultural heritage due to a strange mixture of modern things all sold on the cheap but made to look expensive. It reflects a bad urban planning system and a hard system of exploitation.

            

            Near centre of Plovdiv

Like elsewhere where the same struggle goes on, the youth can run off with the wildest imagination and in the end confront the family with a new set of problems. Altogether it is about being unsure on how to make oneself be attractive enough to attract if not new suitors, then new investments.

Naturally all these observations are all only one time impressions. Since they resulted out of a mere passing through, like brushing with the hand over a railing or over the edge of a wall, it is not clearly enough to gauge the reality in Bulgaria now under EU stipulation to reform its system.

Still, that one wedding scene witnessed while in Plovdiv can gave one something to think about.

 

 

Not sure if it is the right thing to say, but it made an impression of having lots of money to spend where others do not have nearly that amount. However, it is known that even poor workers would spend all their savings for a wedding just to impress everyone else, even it means to ruin oneself for the rest of one's life. There is sometimes this urge to act as if rich or to be a big spender who does not care about money. That stepping out of all proportions has usually devasting consequences for those who can ill afford such a lavish spending on a wedding. The scene we witnessed made however this impression.

Corruption and conspicious consumption go hand in hand. Those with money have to show it somehow. They drive bigger cars, and the women wear fur coats even in high summer time. Jewels glitter and the showing off of wealth continues all the way to how houses are equipped but that is another story.

     

     Side street near centre

Plovdiv is much talked about due to its cultural heritage and wonderful setting. There is much to be discovered when walking through side streets even if cafes and the like seem rather of the type of fast food joints or else as we experienced restaurants which cater especially to tourists by invoking traditional scenes through music and dance.

More important is the national narrative being told over and again with an underlying tone and suggestion as to whom the land belongs to really. That is an overarching way of interpreting inheritance and claims never laid to rest as soon new generations struggle to exist and to survive under similar, indeed dirty conditions.

Bulgaria made the impression that it was a high risk for the European Union to have taken in this country. The risk to go badly wrong was certainly given,  but given the convictions in not merely 'rule of the law', but in a certain kind of administrative regulation linked to funds, has helped the EU to convince each of its member states to confirm certain key principles of EU governance. That is not a neutrality the type Austria practiced for a long time, but rather it shows how patience over time can win over those who are not as of yet convinced this is the way to go forward. That high risk due to lots of corruption was at least the key impression when traveling for a short time through Bulgaria and to be in the streets of Sofia once back from a short excursion to Plovdiv.


Hatto Fischer

19.8.2013

 

                   

                   Hatto Fischer in bus returning to Sofia

 

Thursday, 8th June 2006

2 p.m., Information Centre of the EU: HERMES PRESS CONFERENCE

Public announcement of the project meeting and scientific symposium, short presentation of all organisers to the press

4-7 p.m., Bulgarian National Radio: HERMES Steering Committee meeting

    

            

Meeting of the members of the HERMES Steering Commit­tee (not open to public).

 

~~ conference ~~

 

Sunday, 11th June 2006

 

                                                       

                                                        Entrance to Boyana Church

 

10 a.m., National Museum Boyana Church

Visit to the registered UNESCO World Heritage Site Boyana Church on the outskirts of Sofia.

 

At the outskirts exists as well the former palace of the Communist Party and which houses now oddily enough the National Museum.

 

Post-evaluation

Contributions

Symposium had a variety of contributions but it seemed most of them were disconnected from the practical project level and therefore in a sphere of their own.

Dissemination

Conference papers have been published in English in book form by the Institute of European Urban Studies at the Bauhaus-University Weimar.

The materials were posted for a while on the web www.swkk.de/hermes but this specific website exists no longer. For this reason Poiein kai Prattein has undertaken it to recover some of the materials and to make them available again online.

Intention and structure of the 3rd HERMES symposium

One aim was to provide a forum for the discussion of these issues as mentioned above and covered by the program. Thematic outlines suggested that the political dimension of ‘heritage’ with particular regard to spatial planning and regional development strategies should be covered, but that discussion was never taken up in a consistent manner.

The conference aimed to facilitate the exchange of views and expertise between heritage practitioners, experts and academics. Participants included representatives from political and planning practice as well as experts from related academic disciplines such as history, sociology, geography, cultural studies etc.

The symposium wanted also to offer a platform for presenting practical case-studies, especially from Central and Eastern Europe.

 

Posted Athens 17.8.2013

 

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