Dr. Zachary M. Jones gives the presentation Navigating heritage contexts, planning, governance and communities within European Capitals of Culture. He overviews the important role that Cultural mega-events can play in cities and presents some of the main findings from the HOMEE Research Project and examples of how to implement the recommendations from the Charter for Mega-events in Heritage-rich Cities.
February 20, 2024
Instituto Superior Tecnico, Lisbon
In the last decades, cities and societies have been undergoing an unprecedented process of digitalization. This process impacts multiple dimensions of urban life: from high-level planning to service provision, from city-scale political discourses to day-to-day urban life. The implementation of “smart city” strategies has too often relied on ICT operators, confating this concept into a mere technical and digital matter that typically underestimates the implied political issues regarding democracy, justice, sustainability, and the way we understand human co-existence. The Critical Urban Digitalization seminar series brings together international experts to critically discuss the complexities and controversies of the digitalization/ smartness interplay and provide an overview of ongoing critical research and perspectives animating the current debate.
April 19, 2023, 17:00, Room Castigliano (Building 5)
Bipashyee Ghosh (University of Sussex)
April 26, 2023, 17:00, Room Castigliano (Building 5)
Federico Cugurullo (Trinity College Dublin)
April 27, 2023, 17:00, Room B (Building 12)
Annalisa Deliddo (KMI The Open University)
May 3, 2023,17:00, Room Castigliano (Building 5)
Jonathan Metzger (KTH Royal Institute of Technology)
The past ten years have brought about significant changes to the planning, organization and implementation of mega-events. Following a period of regular and continuous growth, there is significant uncertainty regarding their future. This seminar will explore these issues through the presentation of recent research investigating different aspects – from the policy impact of the IOC’s Agenda 2020 on planning and development to the emerging effects of Milan-Cortina 2026 spreading events across multiple host cities and regions. The accompanying trends of growth and decline, as well as what the future may hold in terms of ongoing evolution, will be reflected upon and discussed.
April 26, 2023, Online
How can cities rich in culture host mega-events without putting their own heritage at risk? How can mega-events become effective ways to promote and protect tangible and intangible heritage in Europe and beyond? Drawing on the HOMEE Research Project – winner of one of the European Heritage Award / Europa Nostra Awards 2022 in research – the seminar discusses these questions and their practical implications.
October 24, 2022, Politecnico di Milano
The full event can be viewed online
Cultural heritage has become increasingly connected to globalisation flows – from mass tourism to the involvement of transnational actors and networks such as UNESCO, international experts, policy knowledge-sharing networks and the growing calls for heritage-based narratives, projects, and solutions. The COVID-19 pandemic illuminated many of these trends by ultimately slowing down or halting them. This situation provides an opportunity to reflect on critically, and perhaps even improve, the local/global links of heritage sites, their tangible and intangible cultural heritage, in urban contexts and beyond. Within this framework, the track welcomes a variety of research approaches and methods.
The multiple issues addressed by the contributors include actors, policies and projects connecting local cultures and identities to global flows through processes of recognising and appreciating heritage sites and practices. Moreover, some contributors reflect on governance issues and regulation of heritage policy and cultural offerings responding to internationalisation goals or standards or city branding, including potential side effects in terms of Disneyfication, touristification, gentrification and more. The track is further concerned with the role of international players and initiatives (UNESCO WHS, cultural and other types of mega-events such as the European Capital of Culture) for the preservation/transformation of historical cities and landscapes.
Within the context of transnational cooperation networks focusing on heritage experts and policy knowledge, the track will promote a reflection on the nexus between global experts and local heritage knowledge, as well as on how international actors collect and use information and meanings regarding local places and their customs.
Eventually, the track promotes a multiscalar understanding of landscape heritage, focusing on transborder and transnational aspects (e.g. Alpine region, Balkan region) and aims to investigate the welfare policies needed today to reduce old and new socio-economic status inequalities.
The track welcomes contributions, including theoretical discussions and reflections based on case studies or other methods of investigation, from all quadrants of Europe or other situations relevant to the topic.