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Culture, heritage, justice and belonging

By Rita Sitas, African Centre for Cities

Effective utilisation for whom and how?

On July 22nd the Whose Heritage Matters team took part in an online seminar, organised as part of an AHRC Global Challenges workshop, University College London. The team were part of a panel on the effective utilisation of sustainability and heritage research and asked 'effective for whom and how?'

Cultural Heritage, Urban Justice and Rewriting the Future

Feminist science and speculative fiction authors, film-makers, musicians and artists have recognized that any vision of a future that has eradicated prejudice is such a far leap from the everyday reality of every corner of the world, it can only be a flight of fiction, a story of a future just beyond our grasp, unless we are committed to finding more just transitions and transformations.

Whose Heritage Matters is concerned with how cultural heritage can be leveraged in this future imagining, by drawing on the past and present in creative ways.  

Kelham Island: Industrial Heritage and Urban Transformation

Anders Hanson, local resident, walking tour guide and steering group member Kelham Island and Neepsend Neighbourhood Forum, 5 November 2019

Plans and Reflections: Sheffield Meeting

In October 2019 team members from Cape Town, Kisumu and Sheffield met in order to feedback initial results from framing interviews and plan work for the coming year. The workshop offered opportunities to provide interview feedback, develop comparative emergent themes, and decide next steps. Importantly the time frame of this project reflects the needs of a set of researchers embedded in different contexts, positions and places. Following these differentiations, a long project set up was organised from the outset.

Cultural Heritage and Sacred Sites in Kisumu: Inception Meetings

By Vicky Habermehl, Urban Institute, University of Sheffield 

In April 2019 the inception meetings for the project started with a series of visits across the Kisumu region. These were organised with communities in different cultural heritage and sacred sites. At each meeting organisers, communities or elders took the group around the site and discussed the key concerns, and organising strategies, as well as future plans. This provided a context for cultural heritage in the area, as well as meeting potential research partners and allowing for broader understandings of different cultural heritage challenges across the region.

Narratives of Cultural Heritage in Kisumu: Reflections on a Workshop

By Beth Perry, Urban Institute, University of Sheffield 

The baking Kisumu heat on a Friday afternoon was not enough to deter people from attending our first stakeholder meeting in Kisumu, on 5 April 2019. Held at KLIP House in central Kisumu, it was standing room only as 46 people joined for a collaborative workshop to map different understandings and meanings of cultural heritage.

People, Places, Policies, Practices: Whose Heritage Matters in Cape Town

By Rike Sitas, African Centre for Cities 

The potential of art, culture and heritage in shaping our cities has captured the imagination of artists, officials, developers and activists alike. Heritage has found its place in local and global policies, in urban plans, in precinct development, in the visual and performing arts, in tourism and heritage-based place making. Although there is a general agreement that heritage is important, what this means is less clear. In particular, how this lands in different contexts can run the risk of creating or exacerbating existing tensions.

Project Set Up: Unsettling Cultural Heritage and Sustainable Livelihoods

By Beth Perry, Urban Institute, University of Sheffield

The 'Whose Heritage Matters?' project had its first project meeting and formal launch in Cape Town in November 2018.