Co-creating cultural narratives for sustainable rural development

Informations

Funding country

Norway

Acronym

CULTIVATE

URL

-

Start date

1/1/2021

End date

12/31/2024

Budget

291,879 EUR

Fundings

Abstract

CULTIVATE seeks to understand the role of cultural heritage in the design of sustainable landscapes and communities in rural areas in relation to societal challenges such as the Covid-19 pandemic, the climate crisis and the nature crisis, and the transformation required to meet the UN's sustainable development goals. This project explores how cultural narratives are co-created, discussed and negotiated on a local, regional and national scale using methods that highlight cultural values, identity and the relationship between people and nature. This autumn we worked on conducting walking interviews and telephone interviews in all the original 11 municipalities in the Nordhordland UNESCO Biosphere Reserve, Western Norway. We have made sound recordings, taken pictures and videos, as well as recorded the walking routes the interviewees pointed out with GPS. The interviewees in the walking interviews and the telephone interviews were asked the same questions. We have interviewed a total of 40 people. The material will be coded and collated with similar interview material from Scotland, the Czech Republic and Estonia, and analysed during the spring. Beyond the spring, we will gather the same actors in workshops in the Nordhordland UNESCO Biosphere Reserve and co-create different scenarios for the future, based on the 'Seeds of good Anthropocenes' methodology, which focuses on using inspiring visions, good initiatives and stories about the future to achieve transformative action for sustainable development. CULTIVATE will have a positive impact in the real world by basing itself on empirical examples from four UNESCO Biosphere Reserves (BR) in Norway, Great Britain, the Czech Republic and Lithuania. These represent a diverse spectrum of rural cultural landscapes with an ethos of scientifically based management and community engagement for sustainable development. To explore how cultural heritage is conceptualized in different parts of social-ecological, cultural narratives in UNESCO Biosphere communities will be compared at regional and national level. The results will be synthesized for dissemination regionally and internationally. We will produce a resource and inspiration bank with stories expressed in written and art-based forms. We will write political recommendations for the integration of intangible cultural heritage in the planning and management of rural areas. CULTIVATE will have a lasting impact on local communities precisely through the contributing process we use.