Future of Cultural Heritage

The European Foresight Platform organizes a workshop to contribute to applying a
future perspective on cultural heritage
. Cultural heritage is important for both
society and economy. Cultural heritage is defined by what people consider
nowadays as of cultural importance because of personal, social, political and
economic reasons. Cultural heritage includes all that is preserved  and
therefore becomes part of our individual and collective memory. Cultural
heritage is not fixed, but is dynamic in a changing world.  Cultural
heritage provides memory and a retrospective on past developments and
achievements, but offers also a reflection on our identity nowadays as well as
a source of inspiration for the future. Moreover, it  supports improving
social and territorial cohesion, is of great economic importance for the
tourism industry, has potential for defining new types of artistic careers, and
so on.

Europe’s cultural heritage is a fragile resource and exposed to many threats such as
climate change and pollution, but also to increasing urbanization and
negligence. At the same time, the way of thinking about cultural heritage is
evolving and the way cultural heritage is developed, appropriated, enriched,
promoted and transmitted is also changing.

Despite these dynamics in cultural heritage, thinking about the future of cultural
heritage is not wide-spread. Maybe it is because of the contradiction between
the retrospective nature of cultural heritage and the prospective nature of
foresight and future studies. Nevertheless, future perspectives on relevant
trends and drivers of change that may impact upon cultural heritage in Europe
in the coming decades can support strategic thinking in cultural heritage
management including preservation, promotion and use of cultural heritage
sources.

The European Foresight Platform organizes a workshop to contribute to applying a
future perspective on cultural heritage. In this workshop trends and drivers of
change that may impact upon cultural heritage will be identified, using the
STEEP structure (Society, Technology, Economy, Ecology and Policy). In
addition, the potential type of impact of these trends and drivers on the
creation, management, preservation, promotion, use, and funding of cultural
heritage will be discussed. The outcomes of this workshop will be offered to
stakeholders dealing with cultural heritage, including European and national
policy makers, programming initiatives, agencies, institutes and research
councils as inspiration to their strategic research agendas.

You are kindly invited to participate in this workshop and to bring your expertise and
experiences into the discussions. Please find attached a draft agenda for this
workshop. You can register for this workshop by sending your name and contact
details to Annelieke van der Giessen, annelieke.vandergiessen@tno.nl.