Cultural Heritage and Sustainable Development P.L. Scandizzo, C. Notaro University of Rome “Tor Vergata”

Cultural Heritage Cultural Heritage and Sustainable Developmentand Sustainable Development

P.L. Scandizzo, C. NotaroUniversity of Rome “Tor Vergata”

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Culture and Development Culture and Development

While our age is characterized by a keen interest in all forms of culture and in a veritable re-discovery of cultural heritage, the concern of economists for cultural activities is more recent. It largely comes from the challenge that culture offers to explain the roots of successful development in different communities. "Culture", a name whose origin is a metaphor from agriculture, stands now to signify a vast set of features and activities, ranging from arts to science to the very ensemble of human activities.

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In part, this is the consequence of the early involvement of another social science – anthropology – which has almost identified itself with the study of culture and its patterns of display and change. In part, it comes from the search for the missing factor to explain the mystery of development, i.e. why some communities prosper and thrive along a desirable path of growth, while others experience backwardness and suffering.

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This interest in culture derives also from some momentous changes in economic theories and practices. These changes have occurred only recently, with the development of new strains of economic thought dedicated to unconventional aspects and unresolved problems of economic activities. According to this view, economic development may not depend on the availability of material resources, on technology or even skills, but on the slow accumulation of individual capabilities, institutions and other forms of "social capital".

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Cultural Heritage

Physical Culture Intangible culture

Movable Assets:- Sculptures- Paintings- Archeological objects- Musical Instruments- Furniture- Handicrafts- Etc.

Fixed Assets:- Built heritage- Archeological sites- Ensembles (urban or scattered)- Cultural landscapes- Rural built heritage- Historic quarters or city centers- Etc.

Cultural heritage is conceptualized by UNESCO in both material and non-material terms, as shown below:

What is cultural heritage?What is cultural heritage?

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What Is Cultural Heritage?What Is Cultural Heritage?

According to UNESCO, physical culture includes monuments, structures, works of art, or sites of "outstanding universal value" from the historical, aesthetic, scientific, ethnological, or anthropological point of view. Within this broader definition, cultural property is defined as sites and structures having archaeological, paleontological, historical, architectural, or religious significance, and natural sites with cultural values.

This definition is used in the Bank's Environmental Assessment Sourcebook (World Bank 1994). The World Commission on Culture and Development also subscribes to this definition. The World Heritage Convention (administered by UNESCO) recognizes both built and natural sites as parts of the common heritage of humanity. Within this context, the term cultural heritage refers to both material and non-material culture.

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What Is Cultural Economics?What Is Cultural Economics?

Cultural Economics regards culture as an economic activity and an engine of economic development. For this purpose, we refer to the product of culture as “cultural goods” (for example, monumental, archeological and historical goods, which constitute the heritage of previous generations). We also call culture the production and the communication of ideas, of life models, of interpretations of the world and of linguistic structures which, in a more general way, characterize a community.

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• Culture is a source of individual and collective identity: it enriches and consolidates the social capital of a particular community. The group of rules, of procedures, of reciprocal feelings that are recognized by members of a social group, forms the social capital of that group.

• Culture is not an “intentional” good: it can flourish only if proper social conditions are determined, as the indirect product of other human and civil actions, in essential conditions of freedom.

Why should culture be crucial for Why should culture be crucial for economic development?economic development?

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The crucial problem is to create a sustainable accumulation of cultural goods. To do so, it is first necessary to carry out an informed, strategic and systematic management of cultural and artistic heritage, stimulating the creation of a network and synergies between the institutions and all the agents involved. It is necessary to develop local abilities of combining culture and economic development, that is, to form and inform agents of the region concerned, so that they are able to operate effectively in this direction.


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The most recent economic theory recognizes that the process of development today depends on the ability to achieve a process of endogenous growth, rooted in the local communities and capable of re-generating and sustaining itself.

This ability can be partly described as governance.


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A project on cultural development and evaluation does not represent a simple exercise of centralized planning, but a real experiment on social promotion.

Promoting culture and local traditions is a way to value the historical journey that allows a community to exist and to recognize its own identity: here we find the first cultural “value”.


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Building capabilities: an E-learning program

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Cultural Heritage and Sustainable DevelopmentCultural Heritage and Sustainable DevelopmentE-Learning ProgramE-Learning Program

The purpose of the program is the dissemination of information and knowledge of how management of cultural goods can create sustainable development in developing countries.

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In this program we propose to:

•Educate and train professionals in cultural heritage and sustainable development; •Promote management of culture as a means to sustainable development; •Provide means and know-how to manage culture and cultural heritage in its less visible forms (libraries, archives, museums, etc.), through the use of information technology and communication technology; •Aid research and innovative projects in cultural tourism.

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The emphasis on capabilities and opportunities and the role of culture in economic development has led to a change in the outlook on the economic problem. While this originally focused on sustainable business models, it has gradually evolved to the attempt to uncover original ways to manage cultural goods, based on their unique potential as social goods. Because culture is largely a non intentional good, whose provision is an expression of social well being rather than an independent factor, its management cannot be based either on decentralized markets or on any attempt of centralized planning. Uncovering a sustainable economic strategy to develop and manage cultural goods is thus the objective of cultural economics and one of the main objectives of this program of seminars.

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Because a strategy is not a set of prescriptions, but a more complex and indirect way to pursue a broader goal, the structure of the seminars that we propose does not conform to a set of lectures on any established path of conventional wisdom.

As an application of the new paradigm for value, our aim is rather to formulate a training program based on the opening of opportunities for learning and understanding the elusive messages of art and culture for economic and social development.

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As the necessary counterpart of the options created, we are confident that the participants will acquire the necessary capabilities, both in the broader areas addressed by the seminars as well as in the more specific fields of interest of professionals and practitioners. Part of the teaching and documentary material, which will be presented on–line or discussed in the video conferences, will thus concern the foundations of the economics and management of culture. These foundations are not only an ensemble of established principles, but also define a problem area, where capabilities and opportunities are intertwined by individual circumstances, directions and personal involvement.

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Part of the material will reflect the desire to pinpoint in a more concrete way the application of these principles. This "practical" section of the seminars will not attempt to illustrate exhaustively the implications of the general part.

It will rather present a range of experiences and scenarios as suggestive of how the theoretical principles of economics can be applied creatively and successfully to the management of a wide range of cultural activities, from historical heritage, to the living arts.

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The project consists of traditional modules followed by distance-learning modules using an interactive e-learning platform,

Through on-line seminars connecting participants from the target countries.

A final dialogue concludes the program.

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An on-line seminar is a virtual lecture by which information is disseminated through interactive e-classes. During and following the seminar, participants will have access to chat sessions, interactive activities, virtual museum tours, forums, tutors and teaching materials.

Interactive activities will allow for communication between participants of the same country and for communication between the participants of one country with another. Participants will have three to four weeks to read the material for each seminar. The seminars should provide for useful and meaningful discussion time, allowing for ideas to be exchanged and case study analysis. Participants should feel free to bring to the program director’s attention their particular needs.

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The program is concluded by a policy dialogue, which aims to discuss selected policy topics in a virtual meeting. The dialogue will examine how cultural heritage, the economics connected to it and the participation of the public and private sector can develop a local economy.

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Each seminar contains the following learning and training activities:

Case Studies

Case studies are an integral part of the learning programme. They will be based on "situations" customized to meet the needs of the participating countries. Hence, the participating countries are invited to suggest case studies pertinent to their own localities and territories.

Virtual toursOn-line visits of a museum or other cultural heritage sites, with follow-up exercises, are important components of the program.

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Experts and invited guests

Leading experts and exponents in the field will be invited to make contributions to both the on-line seminars and video-conferences.

Virtual Library

Additional articles and reading materials are available to participants for further studies.

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In order to promote interaction and cultural exchange between participants, the program includes the following on-line activities:

1. Chat

2. Forums

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Participants are assigned a tutor who maintains contact with him/her via email.

The tutors’ role is:•to facilitate the participants’ studies; •to deal with any queries or problems which may arise during the program; •to check the forums and to respond to posted questions and problems; •to join chat lines when feasible.

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An outline of the program is as follows: Economics and Cultural Value

Museum Collections (PART 1)

History of Art

Museum Collections (PART 2)

MUSEUMS SYSTEM

Conclusion Seminar

Documents

Cultural Heritage and Sustainable Development P.L. Scandizzo, C. Notaro University of Rome “Tor Vergata”