Ποιειν Και Πραττειν - create and do

Four symposia: "Cultural Heritage and Regional Development"


As part of the HERMES project

Background:

The project HERMES (‘Heritage and New Media for Sustainable Regional Devel-opment’) is a joint initiative of 16 institutions from eight countries which co-operate under the leadership of the Foundation Weimar Classic and Art Collec-tions. The project, which is co-financed by the EU as part of the community initiative Interreg III B during 2004-2006, searches for innovative ways of utiliz-ing and preserving cultural heritage by employing new media. The ultimate aim is to valorize fully the potential of cultural heritage as a factor of sustainable regional development (please see www.swkk.de/hermes and www.heritage-radio.net for further information).

As part of the scientific research accompanying HERMES, co-ordinated and con-ducted by the Institute of European Urban Studies at Bauhaus-University Weimar, four symposia on central aspects of the project will be held. Apart from representatives of the project partners, numerous external specialists from vari-ous scientific and practical fields will take part in the events, in order to comment on and discuss HERMES’ approach to the topic ‘Cultural Heritage and Regional Development’ in the light of their own experiences. The results of these confer-ences will be published in English in a new series at Bauhaus University Press.

The following events are envisaged:

 

Symposium Nr. 1: "Between the Seas - in search of common cultural roots in CADSES Europe"

(26-28 June 2005, European Seminar Centre, Ossmannstedt, Germany)

This first workshop will bring together researchers from various countries and cultural contexts, as well as specialists from the field of education and museol-ogy, in order to exchange views on the core terms, methodological fundament, and intellectual approaches of the HERMES project, and to critically examine these. Point of departure of the symposium will be a paper presented by the project researchers, Dr. Frithjof Reinhardt und Justus H. Ulbricht, dealing with the question of common cultural roots in Central and Eastern Europe, and of contours of a common European remembrance. Furthermore, the possibility of presenting these topics in the fields of culture, education and tourism will be investigated.

 

Symposium Nr. 2: "Practical Aspects of Cultural Heritage - utilizatoin, preservation, promotion, and its consequences"

(8-10 September 2005, Kraków, Poland)

The second HERMES symposium will serve to discuss the relevance of the concept of ‘cultural heritage’ in practical fields such as spatial planning, tourism, conservation, place-marketing, regional development strategies etc. Opportunities and risks of practical heritage work in the field of tension between preservation and utilization are to be investigated (key term: commercialization of heritage). On the other hand, the question of the best possible promotion of cultural heritage will be posed, especially with regard to new media. Apart from theoretical reflections on the key terms applied in HERMES, illustrative practical examples shall be presented, especially from the Małopolska region around Kraków in southern Poland.

 

Symposium Nr. 3: "The Politics of Heritage and Regional Development Strategies - Actors, interests, conflicts

(8-10 June 2006, Sofia, Bulgaria)

The third conference will explore the issue of the political dimension of cultural heritage, i.e. ‘heritage politics’, with particular regard to strategies of regional development. At the centre of the event there will be the investigation of political processes of decision-making and planning. Of central importance in this respect are the questions as to who defines ‘cultural heritage’, who the decisive actors are (public as well as private ones), which (and whose) interests cultural heritage serves etc. Among others, the constructionist approach shall be discussed, according to which ‘cultural heritage’ is a social construct which is of great importance for the building and shaping of (collective) identities and the legitimization of structures of power in society. With regard to the topics of spatial plan-ning and regional development, the general significance of cultural heritage in this field will be discussed; in particular, it will be asked inhowfar heritage is pre-served for its own sake, and inhowfar it is meant to serve other interests and aims (key term: place-marketing).

 

Symposium No. 4: "Europe and its Heritage: A Factor of Sustainable Regional Development"

(5-7 October 2006, Weimar, Germany)

The fourth and final symposium will be held as part of the concluding conference of HERMES, and therefore it will take place on a significantly larger scale. On this occasion, the main activities and outcomes of the project will be presented and evaluated as a synthesis. Apart from all HERMES partners and further experts from scientific and practical fields, representatives of political institutions will attend the conference, such as the European Commission and the European Parliament. One of the central aims of the final conference will be to convey the experiences of HERMES to political decision-makers as an explicit policy recommendation. This applies in particular to the relationship between cultural heritage and regional development, and to the possibilities of actively shaping this rela-tionship to their mutual benefit.

 

Contact:
For further information, questions and comments please contact the co-ordinator of the HERMES symposia:
Sebastian Schröder-Esch M.A., M.E.S. Institute of European Urban Studies, Bauhaus University Albrecht-Dürer-Str. 2, 99425 Weimar, Germany

(17/06/2005)

^ Top

« Theory and Concept of Cultural Heritage (WP2) | 1st HERMES Symposium in Weimar 2005 »