Agency and Social Change: What Value Heritage?

Guest Lecture by Professor Amareswar Galla

Abstract

The agency of heritage conservation in social transformations has rarely been the focus of conceptual debates or methodological interrogation. The rhetoric and reality of participatory democracy or active citizenship are under scrutiny for evidence based outcomes. Connectivity and complexity are critical to understanding stakeholder engagement and accountability, where it has become passé in Europe to tag issues, especially economic, in major forums as ‘crisis as a challenge’. The argument is that conservation is good business when the stakeholder analysis is inclusive and responsive maximising on the delivery side with benefits to the primary and other stakeholders. The lecture will draw on the analysis for framing the values embedded in the in the paradigm of an interdisciplinary holistic methodology informing sustainable heritage development.

Presenter

Professor Dr. Amareswar Galla, an Indian educated heritage professional from Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi, an Australian citizen now resident in Denmark, is the Executive Director of the International Institute for the Inclusive Museum (www.inclusivemuseum.org). He was Australia’s first professor of museum studies, UQ, and prior to that professor of sustainable heritage development at the ANU. A well-known applied humanities scholar, his first hand heritage work in post war reconstruction over the past three decades spans across Vietnam, Cambodia, Bangladesh & Afghanistan; and postcolonial indigenous and inclusive heritage development in Australia, South Africa, The Netherlands  and other parts of the world. His recent volume is World Heritage: Benefits Beyond Borders, Cambridge University Press & UNESCO Publishing 2012. A former Vice President of ICOM Paris, he founded the Inclusive Museum Book series: (http://onmuseums.com/publications/books/book-launches)

Time: Wednesday 6. november 2013, 10.15 – 12.00

Place: Room 21.0.54 Multisalen, Faculty of Humanities, KUA2

Host: Department of Cross-Cultural and Regional Studies, ToRS

The lecture is followed by a PhD seminar on World Heritage and Community Engagement - methodological interrogation.