February 2021i Heritage for Global Challenges A Research Report by PRAXIS: Arts and Humanities for Global Development PRAXIS focuses on Arts and Humanities research across the Global Challenges Research Fund (GCRF) and Newton Fund portfolio. Specifically, its aims are to consolidate learning across research projects funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC), to amplify their impact and policy relevance, and to champion the distinctive contribution that Arts and Humanities research can make to tackling urgent development challenges. With the patronage of the: With thanks to our funders: United Kingdom National Commission for UNESCO 2 United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization © PRAXIS: Arts and Humanities for Global Development 2021 University of Leeds Foreword Leeds LS2 9JT United Kingdom In the past few years the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) Tel. +44 (0)113 343 1846 has recognised the value and importance of heritage research for global Email: [email protected], [email protected], [email protected] challenges and placed heritage at the forefront of its global research strategy. Heritage research is an exciting, innovative, and highly collaborative field #PRAXIS that crosses multiple disciplines. It draws on knowledge and expertise from @Changing_Story_ across the arts and humanities as well as connecting with developments in changingthestory.leeds.ac.uk/praxis science, technology, and practice, leading to significant wider impacts and benefits both within the heritage sector and beyond. This places heritage research in a vital role for Author: contributing to global development challenges, which is the focus of this timely report. Francesca Giliberto, Post-Doctoral Research Fellow on Heritage for Global Challenges at PRAXIS The report provides a deep dive into AHRC’s portfolio of nearly 100 heritage-based PRAXIS Research and Editorial Team: Global Challenges Research Fund (GCRF) and Newton Fund projects, providing analysis Stuart Taberner (Principal Investigator), Paul Cooke (Co-Investigator), Esther Dusabe-Richards of how heritage research has, through a range of approaches and through increasing (Post-Doctoral Research Fellow), Deena Dajani (Post-Doctoral Research Fellow), Lauren Wray collaboration between researchers across high and low income contexts, addressed (Project Officer) and Keya Khandaker (Research Assistant) complex development challenges in areas including, among others, poverty alleviation, disaster response and resilience, adaptation to climate change, gender equality, and Acknowledgements: balancing heritage conservation and development. We would like to thank all the academics, practitioners and organisations who have contributed to this report for their invaluable contributions and inputs. A special thanks to the AHRC for their The report reflects AHRC’s broad view of cultural heritage, incorporating, for example, support throughout. the tangible, intangible, digital, intellectual, artistic, and the connections between them. Using a case study approach, the report provides a series of snapshots that highlight Graphic Design and Infographics: not only the value and importance of heritage research for global challenges but also Buttercrumble Limited the wide range of methods, approaches, and innovations that projects have employed. Finally, the report highlights some important lessons as well as future challenges for the Funding: field of heritage and for AHRC’s strategic leadership in this area. While work remains This publication was supported by the UK Arts and Humanities Research Council. to be done, this report recognises the role of heritage research at the heart of global transformation and development and therefore as remaining integral to AHRC’s global Recommended citation: research agenda. Giliberto F. (2021). Heritage for Global Challenges. A Research Report by PRAXIS: Arts and Humanities for Global Development. Leeds: University of Leeds. — Professor Edward Harcourt, Director of Research, Strategy and Innovation, Arts and Humanities Research Council 1 2 The report Heritage for Global Challenges is essential reading for included in Heritage for Global Challenges provide an important repository of evidence researchers, policy makers, and practitioners to help understand the to strengthen the case for the role of cultural heritage in achieving progress towards ongoing contribution of heritage towards the achievement of the 17 these aims and the ‘Global Goals’. Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) or ‘Global Goals’. — James Ömer Bridge, Secretary-General of the UK National Commission for UNESCO is the only United Nations agency with a mandate for culture UNESCO and was instrumental in ensuring that the vital role of culture in achieving sustainable development was formally recognised in the international development agenda. Notably, the Heritage for Global Challenges report and its recommendations significantly build on the point made in the UK National Commission for UNESCO report, Cultural Heritage Innovation – Opportunities for International Development; that the role of cultural heritage is not fully recognised in the SDGs and associated targets. The Heritage for Global Challenges report goes some way to addressing this gap by making connections between a wide range of cultural heritage research projects that seek to address multiple SDG targets. In 2021, we are within the ten-year Decade of Action to deliver the SDGs by 2030. Since the SDGs were agreed, change is accelerating, not only due to the impact of COVID-19, but also as a result of challenges such as national and regional conflicts and threats to democracy from growing populism and nationalism, disinformation and the growth of social media and surveillance via information technology and artificial intelligence. These multi-layered threats bring with them specific threats for cultural heritage including the destruction of heritage sites and increasing disconnection between local communities and their heritage. UN Secretary-General, António Guterres, reflecting on the causes and uneven impacts of the COVID-19 crisis in the most recent UN SDG report, emphasises how the pandemic reinforces the significance of agreements such as the 2030 Agenda, the Paris Agreement on Climate Change, and the Addis Ababa Action Agenda and strengthens the case for internationally coordinated responses guided by the SDGs. Understanding and valuing heritage is integral to achieving the aims of these agreements and to building more equal, inclusive, and sustainable economies and societies. The analysis and recommendations 3 4 Table of Contents Foreword 2 Chapter 2. Challenge-Led Research Case Studies 158 Acronyms and Abbreviations 12 Case Study 1. A Level Playing Field? The Practice and Representation of Women’s and Girls’ Football in South America (ref. 1) 161 Executive Summary 14 Case Study 2. After the Earth’s Violent Sway: The Tangible and Intangible Legacies of a Natural Disaster (ref. 3) 167 Introduction 18 Case Study 3. Building Resilience, Wellbeing, and Cohesion in Displaced Societies Using Digital Heritage: The BReaThe project (ref. 5) 173 Heritage, Global Challenges, and Sustainable Development 18 Case Study 4. ‘Disaster Passed’. Resilient Caribbean Futures Via PRAXIS: Arts and Humanities for Global Development 21 Shared Knowledge of Recent Disaster (ref. 24) 179 Research Design and Methodology 24 Case Study 5. Enduring Connections (ref. 28) 185 Case Study 6. Indigenous Food Systems, Biocultural Heritage, and Chapter 1. Heritage Research, Global Agricultural Resilience (ref. 45) 191 Challenges, and Sustainable Development: A Case Study 7. Learning from the Past: Nubian Traditional Knowledge Thematic Analysis 30 and Agricultural Resilience, Crop Choices, and Endangered Cultural Heritage (ref. 51) 195 Inclusive and Sustainable Cities 40 Case Study 8. Popular Performance for New Urban Audiences: Digitalisation, Innovation, and Technology 52 Reconnecting M50 Creative Cluster with Shanghai All-Female Yue Opera (ref. 61) 201 Poverty Alleviation and Sustainable Socio-Economic Development 64 Case Study 9. Rising from the Depths: Utilising Marine Cultural Food Security and Sustainable Agriculture 78 Heritage in East Africa to Help Develop Sustainable Social, Economic, Global Health and Well-Being 86 and Cultural Benefits (ref. 69) 205 Sustainable Management of Landscapes, Ecosystems, and Biodiversity 94 Case Study 10. Sustainable Solutions towards Heritage Preservation Adaptation to Climate and Environmental Change 102 in the Asyut region, Egypt (ref. 73) 213 Disaster Response and Resilience 112 Case Study 11. Widening Participation and Increasing Access to Human Rights, Inequality Reduction, and Minorities’ Inclusion 120 Cultural Heritage and Natural Science Activities in Georgia (ref. 86) 219 Gender Equality 130 Inclusive, Equitable, and Quality Education 138 Chapter 3. Successful Practices and Lessons Learnt 224 Balancing Heritage Conservation and Development 148 Heritage Research, Global Challenges, and the SDGs 154 Creative and Artistic Methods and Outputs 224 Interdisciplinary approaches 227 5 6 Cultural and Place Sensitivity 233 List of Spotlights Inclusive and Participatory Research 235 Dissemination and Raising Awareness 240 Focus 1. List of UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) 20 Capacity Strengthening and Empowerment 242 Focus 2. Global Challenges Research Fund (GCRF) and Newton Fund 22 Collaboration, Networks, and Equitable Partnerships 246 Focus 3. The Historic City