NS34 Session 22

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Title: Heritage Ecologies: Creative Entrepreneurship for Regenerative Rural Futures

Organisers: Katrín Anna Lund and Anna Hildur Hildibrandsdóttir

Affiliation: University of Iceland and Research Centre for Creative Industries, Bifröst University

Description

It has become a well-worn argument that the traditional separation between nature and culture in Western worldview is becoming increasingly untenable in the era of the Anthropocene and an escalating environmental emergency. At the same time, it is evident that cultural heritage development has been encouraged all over the world as a means to strengthen and revitalise rural areas without questioning the dichotomy. By bringing up the concept of heritage ecology and regeneration we aim to open up for critical approach to culture that moves beyond the traditional dichotomy between culture and nature and open up space for discussing activities and practices that embrace more-than-human relations and realities. In this context we want to think about the possibility of cultural tourism and creative entrepreneurship with a focus on earthly heritage as a creative process in destination development.

We invite papers that explore these types of possibilities from scholars as well as practitioners. We invite papers that introduce projects, practices and products that follow human actors, lone managers and other creative actors, such as localised organisations or municipalities and lifestyle entrepreneurs, driven by passions to bring out narratives that meander in the surroundings and allow visitors to get into closer contact with destination’s ambience. This the panel aims at providing examples of alternative possibilities of dealing with rural development which most often has been dealt with from the point of view of purely economic terms. Although, we by no means attempt to dismiss the importance of economically driven efforts to support rural areas the aim is rather to point out that they often miss out on values that lie within the proximate relations that people have with their surroundings. By attending to such practices, the aim is to shift the discussion from supporting merely sustainable models toward recognising regenerative approaches grounded in the knowledge and experience of those most closely connected to their environments.