ECOLOGY AND SUSTAINABILITY FOR CULTURAL HERITAGE

The course intends to put conservation interventions into perspective, and to delineate the socio-cultural contexts in which they unfold. The relationships between cultural heritage, ecology and sustainability will be examined following diverse disciplinary approaches: heritage studies, environmental humanities, cultural economics and management, urban and regional planning.

The course aims to introduce participants to the main institutions that frame heritage and its conservation at the international level, especially with regard to its relationships with ecology and sustainability. The various scales of cultural assets and their conservation will also be discussed: from objects to sites, to landscapes.

There are no specific requirements for this course.

The course's programme includes the following lessons:

'Ecology and sustainability for cultural heritage'? Presentation of the course
Landscape, geography and the environment
A short story of heritage, from the Grand Tour to mass tourism
Ecology in the Anthropocene: Environmental Humanities
Whose heritage?
Environmentalism: who's involved?
UN's 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development: what of heritage?
UNESCO and the World Heritage List
Cities as heritage
A city like no other? Fragile Venice
Environmental and heritage assessment
Mitigation, adaption, resilience
Climate change and heritage: the case of the Mediterranean's World Heritage sites
Two cases: San Marco and the Dolomites
The issue of decontamination: brownfields and industrial heritage
Sustainable tourism?
(Sustainable) local development?

Furthermore two field trips will be organised in significant heritage sites.

Lesson 2 - Landscape, geography and the environment
- Cosgrove D. (1984). Social formation and symbolic landscape. Madison, University of Wisconsin Press
- Farinelli F. (2003). Blinding Polyphemus: Geography and the Models of the World. Kolkata: Seagull Books
- id. (1981) Storia del concetto geografico di paesaggio. Milano: Electa

Lesson 3 - A short story of heritage, from the Grand Tour to mass tourism
- Choay F. (2001 [1992]). The Invention of the Historic Monument. Cambridge, Cambridge University Press
- Lowenthal D. (2015 [1985]). The Past is a Foreign Country. Cambridge, Cambridge University Press
- Pendlebury J. (2009). Conservation in the Age of Consensus. Oxford, Routledge

Lesson 4 - Ecology in the Anthropocene: Environmental Humanities
- Armiero M., Barca S. (2004). Storia dell’ambiente. Una introduzione. Roma: Carocci
- Rose D. B., van Dooren J., Chrulew M., Cooke S., Kearnes M. & O’Gormand E. (2012). Thinking Through the Environment, Unsettling the Humanities. Environmental Humanities 1, 1-5
- Sörlin S. (2012). Environmental Humanities: Why Should Biologists Interested in the Environment Take the Humanities Seriously?. BioScience, Volume 62, Issue 9, September 2012, Pages 788–789

Lesson 5 - Whose heritage?
- Ashworth G.J., Graham, B.J. & Tunbridge J.E. (2000). A Geography of Heritage: Power, Culture and Economy. London: Arnold
- Smith L. (2006). Uses of Heritage. Oxford, Routledge

Lesson 6 - Environmentalism: who's involved?
- Bobbio, L. (2011). Territorial Conflicts: Six Interpretations. TeMA - Journal of Land Use, Mobility and Environment, 4(4), 79-88. https://doi.org/10.6092/1970-9870/569
- [in Italian] Pellizzoni L. (2011). Conflitti ambientali. Esperti, politica, istituzioni nelle controversie ecologiche. Bologna: Il Mulino

Lesson 7 - UN's 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development: what of heritage?
- United Nations (2015). Transforming our World: The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development
- Culture2030Goal campaign (2019), “Culture in the Implementation of the 2030 Agenda”. Published in Barcelona, Paris, Harare, Sydney, Montreal, The Hague and Brussels, in the frame of the first UN SDG Summit taking place on 24-25 September 2019

Lesson 8 - UNESCO and the World Heritage List
- UNESCO (1972), Convention Concerning the Protection of the World Cultural and Natural Heritage
- WHC (2019 [1978]), The Operational Guidelines for the Implementation of the World Heritage Convention

Lesson 9 - Cities as heritage
(see in part. from previous lessons Ashworth, Choay, Lowenthal, Pendlebury, Smith)
- UNESCO (2011), Recommendation on the Historic Urban Landscape

Lesson 10 - Fragile Venice
- City of Venice (2013), Venice and its lagoon UNESCO World Heritage Site. The Management Plan 2012-2018
- Gasparoli P., Trovò F. (2014). Venezia fragile. Processi di usura del sistema urbano e possibili mitigazioni. Fragile Venice. Processes of wear on the urban system and possible mitigations (bilingual ed.). Firenze: Altralinea

Lesson 11 - Environmental and heritage assessment
- Glasson, J., Therivel, R. Introduction To Environmental Impact Assessment (5th ed.), Oxford: Routledge
- ICOMOS (2011). Guidance on Heritage Impact Assessments for Cultural World Heritage Properties. A publication of the International Council on Monuments and Sites
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Forum of Ministers of Culture (2019). Culture and public policy for sustainable development. Available at:
https://unesdoc.unesco.org/ark:/48223/pf0000371488?fbclid=IwAR0oA4B4iAjfXRWB_AchX8VWFjLdNjYoXhMmVheolbrQY9tkt_8bEU1V1fY

Reimann L., Vafeidis A. T., Brown S., Hinkel J., Tol R. S. J. (2018). Mediterranean UNESCO World Heritage at risk from coastal flooding and erosion due to sea-level rise. Nature Communications, n. 9. Available at: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41

Case study to be chosen and developed by each candidate: a heritage site or item (e.g. a fresco or historic floor), which the candidate will have to analyse in terms of the risks it undergoes as for environmental change, as well as to assess possible solutions. Both the courses contents and bibliography and materials regarding the case specifically must be used.
The essay must be handed to the docent before the (oral) exam.

Furthermore one paper from the following journals will have to be presented, commented and discussed:
Journal of Cultural Heritage Management and Sustainable Development - ISSN: 2044-1266
Journal of Cultural Heritage - ISSN: 1296-2074
International Journal Of Environmental Science & Sustainable Development - ISSN: 2357-0857

The course consists of frontal lessons in which key concepts and case studies will be presented and discussed, plus two fieldtrips. Students' participation and contribution is required.

English

oral

This subject deals with topics related to the macro-area "Cities, infrastructure and social capital" and contributes to the achievement of one or more goals of U. N. Agenda for Sustainable Development