Registration is now open for a seminar on Cultural Heritage and the Just City, co-organised by the Urban Institute, Department of Urban Studies and Planning and Department of Archaeology.

• What role does cultural heritage play in realising more just cities?
• What governance arrangements, policies and processes enable or constrain effective consideration of ‘cultural justice’ within urban policies?
• What are the roles of local officials, universities, academics and community activists in configuring alternative possibilities for rethinking culture, heritage and the just city?

Join scholars and activists from the Universities of Cape Town and Sheffield discussing these questions at a seminar on Tuesday 9^th April, 1500-1700 GMT, Geography Building, Seminar Room B08, Winter Street, the University of Sheffield, S3 7ND. This will be followed by a drinks and nibbles reception.

Programme

The seminar will involve a presentation and Q and A with Dr Rike Sitas, African Centre for Cities, University of Cape Town. This will be followed by a roundtable of Sheffield-based university leaders, academics and activists, with shorter provocations following by cross-national dialogue and discussion.

Heritage justice in Cape Town: From Conservation Check Boxes to Care-full Processes of Co-production (Presentation)

Dr Rike Sitas, African Centre for Cities, University of Cape Town

Cape Town is as well known for its picturesque mountain-shadowed city centre as its stubborn segregation as a result of colonialism and apartheid. Municipalities have often focussed primarily on infrastructural fixes and service delivery solutionism. While these are arguably important interventions, particularly in parts of the city that have been neglected, emphasis is often placed more on material aspects of the built environment than on socio-cultural urban dimensions. Heritage discourses rarely engage with politicized complexities linked to land and labour and urban liveability. This presentation shows how moving away from narrow frames of heritage protection and towards heritage justice requires ‘southerning’, decolonial, and intersectional feminist sensitivities. I draw on collaborations between scholars, city officials, heritage practitioners and activists, unpacking the multiple and contested values and priorities at play. The presentation pays particular attention to care-full tactics and alliances that seek to shift, albeit incrementally, the ways in which heritage is valued and managed for just urban futures.

Find out more:

Rethinking Cultural Heritage and the Just City, Report for British Academy

Mapping, making and mobilising cultural heritage in Cape Town, Whose Heritage Matters

Embedding the needs of under-served communities in local heritage policy in Sheffield through participatory place-based approaches: Reflections of the Roots and Futures project (Panel Contribution)

Dr Courtenay-Elle Crichton-Turley and Rhonda Allen, Roots and Futures team, Department of Archaeology

Roots and Futures is a place-based heritage project that seeks to elevate the voices of communities under-served by heritage policy and practice in Sheffield. Since 2020, our team has worked in partnership with a wide range of community organisations, local heritage groups and the City Council to better understand barriers to equitable participation, visibility and representation, identify the particular needs of underserved communities for heritage policy and deliver interventions that contribute to addressing these. We have amassed a rich dataset of perspectives from groups whose needs are not currently reflected in the city's approach to heritage provision and therefore a key evidence base for strategic decisions in the city to create more equitable heritage policy. In this contribution we will summarise the findings of Roots and Futures so far, reflecting on the opportunities and constraints presented by working with local policymakers, civic projects and researchers to advance social justice through cultural heritage at the local scale. 

Find out more:

Community Voices booklet - a report on our consultations in 2022-23

Roots and Futures website and blog

Links to other publications including our toolkit and policy briefs (via the blog)

Co-producing a Cultural Strategy for Sheffield: The Role of the University (Panel Contribution)

Professor Vanessa Toulmin, Director of City, Culture and Public Engagement, University of Sheffield

The University of Sheffield has long committed to supporting the cultural vibrancy and regeneration of Sheffield and is one of three key stakeholders committed to cross-partnership working, through for instance the Culture Consortium and Compact. In this contribution Professor Vanessa Toulmin will discuss the reasons for the University's engagement - for instance, in relation to the importance of cultural development to city vibrancy - and the two-tier approach to bringing economic, community and city-wide partners together.

Register to book a place