Preliminary Programme

Wed 24 March
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    10:45
    14:15
    16:30

Thu 25 March
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    14:15
    16:30

Fri 26 March
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    10:45
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    16.30

Sat 27 March
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Wednesday 24 March 2004 8:30
I-1 CUL16 Preserving Cultural Traditions and Heritage: Ideologies, Policies, Institutions
Room N1 O1
Network: Culture Chair: Nikolai Vukov
Organizers: - Discussants: -
Krassimira Krastanova, Michel Rautenberg : Construction of Place, Re-Interpretation of the Past
Construction of the place usually lies upon the relationship between people and space, on the one hand, and on the other, upon the way societies use for appropriating territory, both practically and in terms of symbols. Place is life's frame and where social relationships become reality. At the same time ... (Show more)
Construction of the place usually lies upon the relationship between people and space, on the one hand, and on the other, upon the way societies use for appropriating territory, both practically and in terms of symbols. Place is life's frame and where social relationships become reality. At the same time it plays a role of mediator between diverse groups, institutions and individuals. Creating place is a collective activity, which is based on overlapping of geographical peculiarities, cultural acquisitions, historical developments, mixture of signs, i.e. all what makes it unique and becomes a part of its identity. This allows the place to participate as a unit in many networks created by following different criteria: cultural, social, historical or political ones, and this multiplies its many images.

We would like to address the question of place's construction in present days and the case of the Old Town Plovdiv in particular. What we are interested in is the process of construction of this particular place, which we call "Old Town" or "Ancient Plovdiv". Furthermore we would like also to follow the changes of the place's perception as well as to understand the meanings it has been loaded with. We think it is important to present the way it transforms into "high" (symbolic important) place, too, a notion that takes us beyond all the religious, monumental and connected to memory aspects and attaches to the place a multitude of values and practices, which enriches it and support the attitude to it as well as to the different social interconnections. This transformation becomes a reality by the process of patrimonialization that corresponds to attaching value and to using heritage and its incorporation into the cultural practices of the collective life. It is vitality of the cultural life in the city and in the district in particular that makes this place a "high" one, for Plovdiv and perhaps for Bulgaria in general.

By the way, Bulgarian state has showed some involvement in protection of the civic heritage (i.e. houses as opposed to the churches and palaces). During the communist period the interest in culture and heritage corresponded to the state's politics and that was one and the same for Plovdiv and for the other cities in Bulgaria. Use of the heritage and culture mirrored the ideological needs of past's interpretation and the necessity of controlling the collective memory in order to meet the requirements of constructing the national identity and/or of introducing the contemporary society to the idea of cultural diversity and interrelations. (Show less)

Catarina Lundström : The making of local peasant costumes in the 1930th - cultural heritage from a regional gender and power perspective.
My project involves the study and analysis of social and cultural élites from regional, gender and power perspectives in the period of 1900 to 1940. Cultural life in the county of Jämtland, which has been chosen as the empirical base for the study, was concerned with issues of cultural heritage. ... (Show more)
My project involves the study and analysis of social and cultural élites from regional, gender and power perspectives in the period of 1900 to 1940. Cultural life in the county of Jämtland, which has been chosen as the empirical base for the study, was concerned with issues of cultural heritage. It found expression in various societies such as those for the preservation of sites of historical interest and those for local history, and the art and crafts associations. Men dominated this cultural field but major contributions also came from women. A new public arena had been opened up were men and women could act together but where they also competed for the same cultural capital. A central actor in this study is the wife of county governor, in other words the first lady of the province. These women were supposed to take leading part in certain philanthropic and cultural fields of action. One of them was the activities of the art and crafts associations and the regional museums. My paper concerns with a big project of constructing folkcostumes in the county of Jämtland in the 1930th. Here the governors wife took the leading part which included ideological and symbolic leadership. The whole plan was hierarchic in its organisation; from the first lady on the top to the female crafsmanship of textiles to the local élite’s such as the clergyman’s wife and down to the ordinary peasantwives at the bottom. At the same time it was a quite popular project in wich thousands of women participated and took interest. In focusing the making of local peasant costumes I also want to stress the political importance of this female work. I would like to see this cultural field of action as an important part of the nationalising that took part in the beginning of the 2000th century. (Show less)

Tanja Vahtikari : The perception of an historical city as a World Heritage site: global, national and local concepts, c. 1970-2000
The World Heritage Convention was adopted by the General Conference of UNESCO in 1972. Nominations for World Heritage site status by national governments are assessed annually by an international group of conservation experts and bureaucrats according to defined criteria. Cultural and natural locations around the world, which are deemed as ... (Show more)
The World Heritage Convention was adopted by the General Conference of UNESCO in 1972. Nominations for World Heritage site status by national governments are assessed annually by an international group of conservation experts and bureaucrats according to defined criteria. Cultural and natural locations around the world, which are deemed as representing 'outstanding universal value' become listed. Consequently, the World Heritage List's definitions and practices are based on various 'scales' of heritage interpretation - global, national, regional and local being the most prominent. As the 198 historical towns and cities form one third of the total 730 sites on the World Heritage List in 2002, 'urban' often equals 'local' in the context of World Heritage. Towns and cities are both objects of World Heritage listing and participants in the process of World Heritage interpretation.

As part of ongoing doctoral research in history, this paper analyzes the urban dimension in the context of thirty years of World Heritage and, through a multi-scale approach, discusses the evolution of the global conceptualization of urban World Heritage by UNESCO, on the one hand, and the shaping of national and local concepts on the other. The relationship between the different scales of heritage interpretation is examined: how they match, and how they sometimes contradict. A closer scrutiny of one particular World Heritage city, Old Rauma in Finland, is being undertaken, using a variety of archival, literary and oral sources. This allows a more detailed look at the formation of World Heritage practices and cultures in an urban community from the perspective of earlier urban conservation, regeneration and identity agendas. (Show less)



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