ANNEX
To the UCL Declaration on the Joint Programming Initiative
‘Cultural Heritage and Global Change: A New Challenge for Europe’:
LERU Input to the Strategic Research Agenda: research areas, gaps, needs and activities
London, 12 December 2011
INTRODUCTION:
The Declaration was adopted at an international workshop organised by University College London (UCL) on behalf of the League of European Research Universities (LERU),
to coincide with the commencement of the Joint Programming Initiative (JPI) and the development of the Strategic Research Agenda (SRA) on Cultural Heritage and Global
Change: A New Challenge for Europe.
As part of Work Package 2 (Development and Elaboration of the Strategic Research Agenda), led by the UK’s Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC), the workshop
specifically addressed Task 2.2 on research areas, gaps, needs and activities.
Drivers
Use
Research Areas
Continuities and discontinuities between tangible,
intangible and digital heritage, e.g.
 Different ownership of each domain
 Defining each concept in different languages
and contexts
Research Gaps
1. Traditional crafts and preservation
of human talent
Research Needs
Access
Digitisation: a vehicle for attaching meaning
1. Conservation and preservation of
digital media
Improving digital archiving
Thorough understanding of what
digital heritage is
Constructing audiences
Interpretation
Authenticity, e.g.
 Divergent perspectives on authenticity in
different disciplines and contexts
2. Consequences of heritage activities
Protection
New technologies in conservation and the natural
sciences, e.g.
 Natural heritage and cultural heritage
1. Interrelationship between the
natural and the cultural
environment
2. Dealing with obsolete technology
Research Activities
Recognition
Memory systems of heritage claims, e.g.
 The future of museums
 Problems of historic cities
 Educational aspects and cultural transmission
 Archives, databases, etc.
1. New categories of heritage:
cultural landscapes, cultural routes,
etc.
The invention of tradition: How do
objects and practices become
heritage and how do we value it?
How heritage value creates or obstructs economic
value, e.g.
 Value to local people
 Devolution of responsibility downwards
 Examination of how value goes upwards
(towards GDP) as well as downwards
 The role of big international companies and
corporations in defining standards
1. Iconoclasm: an inversion of value
Need to understand and improve
preventive conservation; how to
empower local communities to take
responsibility by locally monitoring
conditions; to understand the
benefits and risks involved.
Change
The definition of European Heritage: when, where and
who?, e.g.
 Questions of inclusion and exclusion
 Migration and diversity
 Translation
1. 20th century cultural material
2. Maritime heritage of Europe
3. Mutability of heritage,
intergenerational and intercultural
vision
Need for a non-European
perspective on heritage to
understand a global perspective
Need for an
interdisciplinary
network and
infrastructure for
improving exchange,
sharing and developing
joint research on
cultural heritage