THE ROLT MEMORIAL LECTURE 2012: INDUSTRIAL HERITAGE AT RISK

Abstract

This article describes the 2011 English Heritage ‘Industrial Heritage at Risk’ project. Having examined the findings of a public attitudes survey on the industrial heritage, it looks at the key risks and conservation solutions facing industrial sites, and the role the lead organisations play in their rescue. The entries on the Heritage at Risk Register are examined and the top ten industrial heritage at risk sites in England identified. A range of outputs are described together with the media coverage that accompanied the launch of the project.

Progress since 2011 is considered including the separation in April 2015 of English Heritage into two organisations — Historic England and the English Heritage Trust. The important role that volunteers and local groups play in the conservation and management of England's industrial heritage is acknowledged throughout, and a possible new role for the Association for Industrial Archaeology suggested as part of Heritage 2020.     

Engagement and Management: Developing a Monitoring System for Open-air Rock Art in the UK and Ireland

ABSTRACT

Neolithic and Early Bronze Age rock carvings in the United Kingdom and Ireland represent an internationally unique rock art tradition as it is, to the best of our knowledge, the only wholly abstract global rock art tradition. This heritage resource is, however, under threat from an array of factors, such as increasing population densities and agricultural intensity. In this paper, we report on the Condition Assessment Risk Evaluation (CARE) project that had as one of its primary objectives the co-production of a user-friendly, non-invasive condition assessment risk evaluation Toolkit for gathering and organising information essential for the long-term conservation of open-air rock art. We describe the public involvement CARE process through co-experience participatory focus groups, which evaluated the Toolkit, concluding that we can have confidence in the results obtained from the public. Furthermore, the variables that form part of the Toolkit and related management recommendations are presented.     

The protection and management of the megalithic art of Galicia,Spain

Abstract

Megalithic art is an important cultural resource in many regions of Western Europe. In this contribution we look at examples from Galicia, in the north-west corner of the Iberian Peninsula. A vast project has been underway since 1998, surveying and characterizing megalithic paintings, a field of research previously unexplored in any systematic way. Through defining the extent and state of conservation of megalithic paintings, the aim of the project is to be able to recommend adequate measures for their protection and preservation. It is hoped that this interdisciplinary effort will be combined with a consistent policy of display and promotion that will ensure a growing public awareness of the value of these fragile artistic works, while avoiding unnecessary losses in this part of our cultural heritage.     

The effectiveness of public participation in the environmental impact assessment process – a case study of the projected Sierilä hydropower station at Oikarainen,northern Finland

One of the most difficult challenges in environmental impact assessment (EIA) is the effectiveness of public participation. This article addresses this question by looking at evaluation criteria applied during the EIA process for a northern Finnish hydropower project. The problematics of public participation is discussed in connection with the EIA process and social impact assessment for the projected Sierilä hydropower station in the village of Oikarainen, near Rovaniemi, in northern Finland, during which the local population has been viewed as not being sufficiently competent as the project developer, Kemijoki Ltd. Nevertheless, carrying out an EIA seems to be a starting point in the long‐term process of increasing the effectiveness of public participation and the influence of local communities on hydropower planning processes in Finland.     

The Aakash tablet and technological imaginaries of mass education in contemporary India

Abstract

We explore here public and private initiatives in technological solutions for educating the poor and the disadvantaged in India since the second half of the twentieth century. Specifically, we document Ministry of Human Resource Development’s project to develop an affordable tablet computer, named ‘Aakash,’ as a personal access device for digital courses and online learning materials. We approach this case study in relation to several educational technologies that preceded it, and with a wider interest in mapping a contemporary transition from satellite-based mass education to Internet-based mass education. We argue that this process cannot be easily seen as a transition from unilateral broadcasting to more democratic multi-casting model of communication and learning. Specifically, we study the manufacturing process of Aakash and the public debates around it, to comment on the nature of state power in India, as revealed in its attempts to imagine and develop a digital personal device to deliver mass education.     

Education for what? Shaping the field of climate change education with children and young people as co-researchers

ABSTRACT

Children and young people are often positioned as the next generation of leaders in whom the public imagines or expects to overcome the legacies of climate and environmental inaction. Increasingly analyses of progress in environmental education independently identify the need for researchers and teachers to ‘listen to children’s voices’. In this paper we argue that climate change education presents a significant platform not only for youth voices, but also for a genuine activation of children’s political agency in schools, universities, and the public domain. In so doing, we draw upon the government funded project Climate Change?+?Me, which has involved working with 135 children and young people from across Northern NSW, Australia as co-researchers investigating young people’s voices in climate change. We conclude that climate change education can open up an entirely new field of educational experience and inquiry when it is inclusive of and led by young people.     

Controlling Civilian Volunteering: Canada and Australia During the Second World War

Abstract

Uncontrolled and undirected people, in their patriotic exuberance, started to create a host of patriotic organizations. They all needed money and proceeded to try and get it from the public in a variety of ways. The public soon began to exhibit impatience and the Government realised that it had a problem which had to be solved.     

The Public Communication of Science and Non-Formal Education Within the Framework of Public Argentine Archaeology: The Case of Archaeology Workshops

Abstract

This article presents and analyses a method of public communication in archaeology carried out by a group of researchers within a non-formal educational framework, as a contribution to public archaeology in Argentina. This project included diverse activities, such as archaeology workshops for children and teenagers, which took place in museums in four cities located in three regions: Paraná (North-east), Tres Arroyos and Lobería (Pampas), and Lamarque (Patagonia). A conceptual evaluation is presented based on the application of a non-participational observation methodology, that includes the analysis of posters made by those attending the workshop and surveys conducted by the archaeologists at the culmination of the activity. This study suggests that workshops can be one of the most effective strategies employed by researchers to publicly communicate archaeology, and therefore can be of use to other research teams that have as their objective the democratization of knowledge generated in scienti?c-academic spheres.     

Community Archaeology as Knowledge Management: Reflections from Uneapa Island,Papua New Guinea

Abstract

Over the last decade the concept of community archaeology has become a worldwide phenomenon; a convenient tagline largely describing the involvement of non-archaeologists in the practice of interacting with, uncovering, interpreting, and presenting the past. A plethora of new definitions and methodologies have been postulated, a marked increase in public funds invested in such initiatives is notable, as is the development of more rigorous evaluation strategies. Using Etienne Wenger’s ideas about ‘communities of practice’ (1998), I argue that community archaeology can be conceived as a form of knowledge management. In doing so, this paper reflects on the interactions between a small research team and local community during six months fieldwork on Uneapa, a remote island in the Bismarck Sea, Papua New Guinea. It considers the sets of relations that emerged whilst fi?eld-walking, surveying, and excavating Uneapa’s monumental landscape, and discusses how local ideas and knowledge influenced and altered the project methodologies and research questions being asked. This paper also highlights the challenges faced when reifying such engagements into research outputs.     

Between the "Already" and the "Not Yet": A Peace Perspective and a Catholic Theological Viewpoint on Religion and Politics

Abstract

Taking an interdisciplinary approach, this article questions the mainstream idea about the relationship between religion and politics that associates the church and state separation with a strict private—public division. Agreeing with the former distinction, we criticize the latter from the perspectives of both Catholic theology and peace and conflict studies. Both fields offer adequate reasons to challenge this narrow dualism, envisioning the spheres of religion and politics as complementary and mutually enriching. In response to increased violence involving religions across the globe, "religious peacebuilding" is currently developing approaches to explain such conflicts and inform peacebuilding methods and strategies. Additionally, the theological-emphasis on the eschatological presence of the "already" appeals to Catholic faith to pertinently reflect upon and frame public life. Consequently, we plead for the critical and beneficial engagement of religions in the public sphere as "not yet" sufficiently acknowledged.     

Emotional geography of education for history learning

ABSTRACT

This conceptual paper explores two empirical examples to illustrate the need for ‘emotional geographies of education’ in relation to history learning at the level of primary education. It uses discursive analysis to analyse a specific WW2 history project, from a public school in England, to highlight the necessity to bridge formal environments of learning such as educational institutions, and informal spatialities of learning like the home and the community which provide the ‘funds of knowledge’ that students bring into the classroom. The article then discusses emotionality in the classroom (as a formal space of learning) by analysing pedagogical tools, such as testimonial literature used to facilitate emotional understanding of events like the Holocaust. Drawing from the literature on safe space, this article presents the nuances that have been raised with regard to power, dialogue and emotion, in relation to the discussion of classrooms as spaces of critical engagement with history.     

Science,landscape archaeology and public participation: The Community Landscape Project,Devon, UK

Abstract

This paper presents and describes the background to the Community Landscape Project (CLP), which commenced in Devon in 2001 with funding from sources that include the United Kingdom Heritage Lottery Fund. The project is concerned with increasing public participation in landscape archaeology and, unusually, palaeoenvironmental studies, with the aim of dispelling the myth that archaeology is only about excavation and ‘finds’. The paper describes the project's genesis and its success in increasing public participation in landscape archaeology. The unusual features of the project include its scientific palaeoenvironmental content, both in the field and in the laboratory (environmental stratigraphy and pollen analysis) and its use of GIS. It is argued that this kind of project, with external or charity funding, has become essential because of a high demand coupled with a funding gap between the government, local societies and universities. Lessons have been learnt and some of these are summarised here with the aim of helping others to devise and run innovative and inclusive community archaeology projects.     

The Gift We Bring

Abstract

Miroslav Volf’s A Public Faith invites religious traditions, especially Christianity, to bring their best elements into the public square in a spirit of hospitality and engagement for the common good. With regard to Christianity, he claims that one of the best elements we can offer the public square is a complexly relational vision of the human person made to love self, others, God. In this essay Dávila proposes that the preferential option for the poor is a particular expression of this anthropological vision of Christianity that is well poised for public engagement based on humility and care for the most vulnerable members of society. Following Volf’s proposal, the option for the poor functions as a paradigm for imaginative and creative engagement in the public square that might help people of faith navigate seemingly intractable political and cultural disagreements in the public square.     

Religious Speech in the Public Square

Abstract

I examine the reasons often given for restricting religious language to the private domain. Despite acknowledging their force, I argue that suppressing religious speech in public conversations is inherently dangerous, suggesting that such a policy undermines mutual trust and confidence, is corrosive of individual integrity and that such marginalization of religious language deprives social discussions of vital resources. Finally I propose a set of qualities and virtues that should underpin the way that religious languages and perspectives are deployed in public so that fears about this can be overcome in service of a more harmonious and enriched level of exchange in the public sphere.     

Framing the High North: Public Discourses in Norway after 2000

Abstract

The article presents an overview of the main public debates in Norway that can be said to have framed and defined the High North since the turn of the Millennium. It is based on a qualitative study of over 3000 articles published in four Norwegian newspapers issued between 2000 and 2006. Our discussion is structured around three overarching, interconnected narratives that we think capture the essence of the Norwegian public discourses on the High North between 2000 and 2006. These are “Fragments from the 1990s”; “The great narrative of the High North”; and “Mixing cold water with hot blood”. The first half of the 2000s is characterised by an almost total absence of the High North as a discursive and politically coherent concept. From 2004, however, usage grew fivefold, alongside an extensive, dynamic discursive mobilisation. When the Russians decided in 2006 to shelve the Shtokman project and critical voices were heard condemning Norway's environmental performance in northwest Russia, public opinion swung back again. A feeling of cold reality replaced the sense of optimism towards the energy potential of the north, and an exercise in collective soul-searching commenced – similar to that of the early years of the decade. We believe the type of discursive change we document in this article constitutes policy trends in connection both with the High North and with other sectors where policy is subject to intense public debate and appraisal. We hope that discourse analysis has enabled us to investigate and share how Norwegian public discourses on the High North are socially produced, framed and maintained but at the same time are always in flux and open to “new” directions which should be possible – at least in theory – to trace by going back in time.     

Tracing Indian girls’ embodied orientations towards public life

Abstract

Contemporary figurations of the ‘the Indian Woman’ over recent years have been heavily influenced by national and international media coverage focused on high profile, gruesome and brutal cases of rape and sexual assault of women in public. The suffering involved in such cases notwithstanding, we argue that investment in such representations runs the risk of limiting our understanding of the varied experiences of female bodies in public life. Most significantly, the bodies of younger girls and how they relate to public life is mostly assumed rather than studied. Drawing on a sub-sample of ethnographies of younger children aged 6–8 living in the city of Hyderabad, India and employing the phenomenological concept of ‘orientation’, the article explores young girls’ everyday embodied orientation towards public life, with an intersectional framework. The paper considers three case studies from different spatial/cultural contexts and the empirical material is organised around the themes of the male gaze in a public space, orienting bodies in a schooled space, and the lived body in a domestic space.     

MINDING HISTORIES: EXPLORING EARLY EXPERIENCES OF MIGRATION,SETTLEMENT AND WELLBEING THROUGH LIFE HISTORIES OF MIGRANTS RESIDING IN THE LONDON BOROUGH OF BEXLEY

Abstract

This article reports on oral history interviews undertaken with migrants residing in the London Borough of Bexley from the 1950s onwards. It focuses on the significance of early migration and settlement on their mental wellbeing. The findings reflect the diversity of Bexley’s communities and highlight some of the unique experiences that impacted on mental wellbeing for participants. Significantly this project has had important educational benefits, giving the people of Bexley the opportunity to speak out about their experiences, thereby generating awareness in public attitudes towards the complex issues of mental wellbeing and migration.     

Public technology: nuclear energy in Europe

ABSTRACT

The concept of ‘public science’ has been fruitfully used to indicate the intricate interrelatedness of science and society. In studies of knowledge and its publics, however, technology has been routinely subsumed under science and the distinctive nature of technical knowledge neglected. We are aiming in this article at conceptualizing the public nature of technologies. First, we start with surveying the literature on public science. Second, we scrutinize various conceptual approaches to better understand the social and cultural factors embedded in technologies. In so doing, we reflect upon the twentieth-century history of technologies as public things. Third, we focus on nuclear energy in Europe as an exemplary case of a large-scale technology which has been shaped as part of public culture. We suggest that the specificities of the nuclear as a publicly shaped societal entity can be understood as an example of the wider category we propose to call ‘public technologies’.     

Innovation,Tourism and Destination Development: Dolnośląskie Case Study

Abstract

There is more to success in destination development than just natural or cultural heritage and assets. Increasing globalization and changes in the realm of tourism, both in supply and demand, helped to identify and recognize new development factors. Skilful application of various drivers and mobilization of stakeholders around well-defined development objectives may bring unique results in terms of creating a multidimensional, complex and innovative mega-product. Until now, public administration has been unable to identify timely innovative features and the high promotional and social potential in the Palaces and Gardens Valley project. Instead, the main drivers behind its success have, therefore, to be sought outside public policies, among new development factors utilized by private sector and non-governmental organizations. However, in the long run, recently intensifying close cooperation of public and private bodies is a condition of further development of the project in question.