Evolving Legacies
Rethinking Local Ecologies of Industrial Spaces via Heritage: The CENTRINNO Approach View Digital Media
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Harry Reddick, Frenzi Ritter, Pablo Muñoz
Recent years have seen an influx of research on the metabolism of urban ecosystems and the related environmental impacts of resource consumption and waste generation of urban life (see: Amenta & van Timmeren, 2018, Song et al, 2018, Shafie, 2013 Dias, 2013). The CENTRINNO research project adopts and builds upon this urban metabolism approach by integrating a historical dimension, including unheard voices and unseen phenomena of the past into the analysis of city ecologies. In CENTRINNO, ecologies are seen as the complex webs of relationships between humans, their environment, and their material cultures that are not 'given', but reinforced through cultural practice. Bringing a heritage focus into urban metabolism analysis allows for a deep reflection on how traces of linear metabolisms (with their remnants present in factories, waste, pollution, trauma or nostalgia) continue to shape a site’s ecology until today. CENTRINNO shows that ‘waste’ is a cultural concept: the ‘waste’ of cultural narratives becomes just as reusable as manufacturing waste. Using the Emotion Networking methodology (Dibbits & Willemsen, 2019), the project digs deeper into the histories of the complex set of human and non-human (f)actors who impact their respective urban ecologies. Case studies from Tallinn, Paris, and Blönduós indicate how ethnographic fieldwork and interviews can help to discuss the different perspectives on the interlocking current, past and future urban ecologies. Finally, the authors reflect on how working in the intersection between heritage and urban metabolism allows us to explore new visions and narratives for more sustainable, inclusive, and circular futures.
Dealing with the Immeasurable: Asset-based Approaches and Social Sustainability in Environmental Management View Digital Media
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Federica Panzarella
Integrating the three pillars of sustainability (environmental, economic, and social) in environmental management is a complex task. Imbalances in sustainability considerations often translate to a higher focus on economic and/or environmental aspects to the detriment of the social ones. Social dimensions of sustainability are referred to as 'problematic' due to the shortfalls of current approaches in measuring, identifying and including subjective, qualitative aspects into environmental planning and decision-making. The concept of community capitals and assets is increasingly applied within environmental management for its potential to foster more effective and holistically sustainable decisions by assessing both tangible and intangible resources that are present in the impacted community(ies). Our research analyzes - through an extensive review of peer-reviewed articles- theoretical and empirical applications of asset-based approaches for the inclusion of social sustainability into environmental management. Results show that asset-based approaches constitute an effective tool for the inclusion of non-objective criteria into decision-making, thus fostering a holistic sustainability assessment of environmental interventions. However, these approaches encounter some limitations in regard to discrepancies between their theoretical formulation and empirical application and the existence of differing terminology to indicate community assets. On the basis of our findings, we claim the importance of conducting asset mapping with the intention to identify community resources a priori - as opposed to using assets as impact categories ex-post. We also suggest that, in order to facilitate the practice-oriented application of asset-based approaches, the adoption of an easily understandable and universal terminology to refer to assets is necessary.
Sustaining Heritage through Creative Tourism: Recent Creative Tourism Research in Thailand View Digital Media
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Umaporn Muneenam
Creative tourism has been developed from the idea of creative economy in order to add invaluable on experiences of creative tourists. Traditionally, creative tourist gains authentic experiences from local tourism provider, or called personal interpreter. This review article investigated relevant creative tourism researches especially in Thailand and found researches since 2011 to present such as heritage on food, natural ecology, arts and architecture, historic arts, handicraft, beliefs and traditions, literature, music, lifestyle, and value systems. In addition, this also discovers role of non-personal interpreters such as, advances in communication and technology, social media, and website in helping both creative tourists and also local creative tourism providers participate more actively, as well as motivating and increasing level of participation which is crucial condition of creative tourism. For example, reviews information from previous creative tourists on social media that attract new comer of creative tourists to decide to participate more level of participation; creative tourists receive information from searching, comparing, evaluating, and sharing creative tourism experiences before, during, and after the journey; creative tourists learning earlier from advertisement, mass media, and online information; two-way communication between creative tourists and local tourism providers via social media and website. Thus, with these methods, heritage is sending from one to another, and it is sustained through creative tourism.
