A Realising Just Cities Project
Whose Heritage Matters
Whose Heritage Matters is a 2 year research project (2019-2020) funded by the British Academy, with support from Mistra Urban Futures. We will learn by doing, using co-production to support creative activities in Cape Town and Kisumu to value cultural heritage.
Cape Town and Kisumu are two secondary African cities with high levels of poverty, unemployment and inequality, but also rich in arts, cultural and heritage practices.
Harnessing cultural heritage may play a role in addressing these challenges. However, cultural heritage is a value-laden concept, particularly in the context of colonial histories and urban futures.
Our aim is to work with partners, and particularly women in low income communities, to ask:
• Whose heritage matters?
• How can we negotiate plural and competing heritage values?
• What are the challenges and opportunities in mobilising cultural heritage values to support more sustainable livelihoods?
We want to understand the diverse and plural meanings that people give to cultural heritage. Over the course of the project, we will carry out collaborative mapping workshops, support creative making activities and co-produce forward plans designed to mobilise stakeholders around the findings from the research.
The project is part of the Realising Just Cities programme. It is a partnership between Sheffield University’s Urban Institute, the African Centre for Cities (Cape Town, South Africa) and the Jaramogi Oginga Odinga University of Science and Technology (Kisumu, Kenya).
Contact Beth Perry (email) if you would like to find out more.