Dear Colleagues,

Scope

The last decade or so has seen a growing recognition of the importance of culture as a driver for sustainable development in international heritage agencies, government policies and academic research (Clark, 2006; FARO convention, 2005; Marana 2010; UNESCO, 2015).). The notion of sustainability has been featured in approaches that seek to promote the protection of cultural heritage from various threats and impacts, but also to advocate for the importance and contribution of tangible and intangible forms of heritage to other aspects of human life, society (wellbeing, social cohesion, sense of belonging and identity) and ecology (Galla 2017; Pereira Roders and van Oers 2011; Smith, 2008; Tweed and Sunderland 2007). The recently-agreed United Nations Sustainable Development Goals introduce a framework for exploring ways in which heritage can driver sustainable development in a holistic manner. At the moment, heritage is almost absent in the Sustainable Development Goals Agendas. Yet, this provides an ironic opportunity to locate heritage at the heart of sustainable development. For this to happen, interdisciplinary and cross-sector work is needed.

Gaps in existing literature

Existing discourse and heritage practice tends to operate within specific disciplinary or professional boundaries and the various approaches are frequently employed in isolation from each other. What often lacks is a cross-fertilisation of ideas, models, methods and approaches developed by a variety of practitioners and researchers working in disciplines that could further inform heritage studies

Purpose

Within this context, this Special Issue aims to encourage further dialogue, critical reflection and cross-disciplinary collaboration by bringing together examples of interesting projects and research that could provide an impetus for theoretically-informed and practically grounded approaches.

Focus

We invite theoretical papers that propose interdisciplinary methods and/or concepts to the contribution of cultural heritage to other aspects of sustainable development (economic, social, environmental). This Special Issue also seeks to publish empirical papers with case studies of participatory approaches that render cultural heritage, both tangible and intangible, a catalyst for sustainable development. We welcome papers from a wide range of disciplines and specifically encourage research that embraces approaches that go beyond disciplinary boundaries. We are also very keen on experimental work with ways in which heritage can contribute to achieve Sustainable Development Goals.

Some of the potential issues/themes covered include one or more of the following areas in both global and local contexts (the list is not exhaustive):

• Case studies where heritage has/is being actively used to achieve Sustainable Development Goals
• Critical reflections on best practice in the role of heritage on sustainable development or new approaches in conceptualising heritage sustainability
• The impact of political and social agendas on heritage sustainability.
• The challenges of globalisation and/or modernisation to heritage sustainability.
• Cultural heritage and its contribution to: economic sustainability, social sustainability, environmental sustainability-areas of impacts and analytical approaches to capturing those
• The opportunities and challenges of public/community participation in heritage projects for contributing to sustainable management practices covering both intangible and tangible heritage
• Methodological approaches and specific methods and tools for critically evaluating the impact of heritage projects on aspects of wellbeing and quality of life

References:

-Clark, Kate (editor) 2006. Capturing the Public Value of Heritage. The Proceedings of the London Conference 25-26th January 2006. English Heritage, London.

-Council of Europe Treaty (2005) ‘Council of Europe Framework Convention on the Value of Cultural Heritage for Society - Faro Convention 2005’.

-Galla, Amareswar, 2017 ‘Living heritage and safeguarding outstanding universal value Context for sustainable development’, Cambridge University Press

-Maraña, M. (2010) ‘Culture and Development’ Unesco, Extea, Working Papers No. 1. Bilbao Spain

-Pereira Roders, A. and Van Oers, R. (2011) ‘Editorial: bridging cultural heritage and sustainable development’, Journal of Cultural Heritage, Management and sustainable development., 1(1), pp. 5–14.

-Smith, L. (2008) Uses of heritage. Great Britain: Routledge.

-Tweed, C. and Sutherland, M. (2007) ‘Built cultural heritage and sustainable urban development’, Landscape and Urban Planning, 83(1), pp. 62–69.

-UNESCO 2015 Sustainable Development Goals

Dr. Kalliopi Fouseki
Dr. Georgios Alexopoulos
Ms. Eirini Gallou
Ms. Elia Quijano Quinones
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

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• sustainable development goals
• heritage
• interdisciplinary research
• evaluaiton