Inauguration UNESCO Chair – 25 March 2009

Tijl Vereenooghe

A bottom-up initiative

• 3 heritage NGOs in Flanders– Heemkunde Vlaanderen vzw– VCM-Contactforum voor Erfgoedverenigingen vzw– FARO. Vlaams steunpunt voor cultureel erfgoed

vzw

• Starting point = CoE declaration on the role of voluntary organizations in the field of cultural heritage (Portoroz, 2001)

Inventory of Heritage Organisations in Europewww.heritage-organisations.eu

Heritage, what’s in a name?In the broad sense of the word

Archaeological heritage Underwater heritage - underwater archaeology  Immovable heritage - built heritage      historical monuments      castles      historical dwellings     fortifications      mills      ...  Landscape heritage      landscapes, parks, gardens  Mobile heritage - transport heritage      maritime heritage      rolling heritage      riding heritage      flying heritage  Industrial and scientific heritage Religious heritage Military heritage Musical heritage Gastronomic heritage Funerary heritage

Museum heritage - movable heritage      Museum items and collections      Museology      Artistic heritage 

Agricultural and rural heritage Living agricultural heritage Local genetic heritage  Oral and intangible heritage Folk culture Dialectology - historical linguistics Traditional crafts Traditional costumes Heritage performers - circus, popular theatre, puppet theatre Heritage performers - folk dance, folk music Festivals - parades Ethnology Folklore Traditional sports and games

  Archival heritage Documentary heritage Digital heritage Audiovisual heritage  Re-enactment - living history  Heritage education  History      Local and regional history      Migration history      Social history      Economic history      Cultural history      Political history      Oral history

Toponymy Genealogy Numismatics Heraldry Cartography

 Heritage volunteers  Cyber culture

… 

European Conference on Civil Society Organisations active

in the Field of Heritage• 135 international participants and 45 local

participants will represent the diversity of the European civil society for heritage

• NGOs from at least 25 European countries• Stimulate smaller NGOs to be present• Focus on bringing people together and on

exchanging ideas and experiences

European Conference on Civil Society Organisations active

in the Field of Heritage• GOALS• 135 international participants and 45 local

participants will represent the diversity of the European civil society for heritage

• NGOs from at least 25 European countries• Stimulate smaller NGOs to be present• Focus on bringing people together and on

exchanging ideas and experiences

European Conference on Civil Society Organisations active in the Field of

Heritage

1. A question of scale: local/micro

- Awareness about the ‘smallest’ best practices - Who adapts to who ? (cfr. microfunding)- Contractdriven process ?

2. Practical questions for active citizens

- Practical guidance and information

- Manual/guidebook ?

- Horizontal networking (‘bottom-bottom’): need for indepth, quality-networks (good practices!)

3. Active citizens and professionals ?

Ideally : complementary synergy

- Risk of a top-down in disguise ?

- ‘heritage process’ : political context and criteria governing local choices ?

- 4. Involving younger generations ?

- Younger people embedding meaning/values to heritage themselves

- importance of education as creating awareness (seduction) : sparks for future ignition

- role of new technologies ?

5. Activism and compromise: volunteers and government

complementary/symbiotic relationship

- NGO’s need to guard priorities/corebusiness

- Believe in the value of your ‘stakeholdership’ in a quality-driven democratic decision making process

- Gov. Needs to take ‘active citizenship’ seriously for effectively solving conflicts of interest

6. Heritage care and development

Obvious importance

- Danger of catering the wrong interests (instrumentalization) ?

- Danger of a ‘detachment’ from a communities’ true heritage

7. Local worlds and global village

Local identity, sense of place as key-issue (complementary to globalization)

- Trap of cells of anti-modernist nostalgia ?

- Does local identity/active local citizenship as a tool of (intercultural) dialogue work in practice ?

8. Motivating our volunteers

Series of different motivations/intentions

- Understanding our volunteers

- Awareness of differences between political cultures, different contexts