Final Report Summary - CRIC (Identity and conflict. Cultural heritage and the re-construction of identities after conflict.)
Executive summary:
The CRIC project was based on the recognition that cultural heritage plays important roles during conflict and post-conflict scenarios and that these are poorly understood. Cultural heritage - in forms such as architecture, archaeological sites, landscapes and museums - are damaged in times of conflict, including through deliberate targeting in order to inflict psychological harm. Recent conflicts have highlighted these connections, making the post-conflict reconstruction of cultural heritage an important cultural, political and socioeconomic concern. The CRIC project was a response to the urgent need for analysis in order to better comprehend these interconnections and eventually to formulate forward thinking reconstruction policies and practices.
Project description
The research took place at two levels: one, case study specific research and analysis and comparative research and synthesis and two, fieldwork, data collection, analysis, publication and various forms of dissemination activities.
The CRIC project used case studies to analyse the relationships between cultural heritage, conflict, destruction and reconstruction, to develop an empirically based understanding of the complex links between these elements, to reach comparative insights and to analyse the importance of these relationships to the challenges experienced by post-conflict societies. CRIC examined conflicts in Spain, France, Germany, Bosnia and Cyprus through case studies that represented varied geographic locations, linguistic backgrounds, demographic make-ups, as well as different historical contexts and time depths, thus providing the project with a detailed and contextually varied data set.
Thematic results
The CRIC project made considerable theoretical contribution to our understanding of the varied and complex roles heritage plays in the reconstruction of society after conflict, including its potential negative impacts. Archival research and fieldwork have led to substantial added knowledge and the project has developed a number of important analytical concepts. Through the case studies substantial new knowledge and understanding of specific places and how they came to play important roles in European memory, have been gained. Through comparison significant common characteristics of the processes that unfold through their destruction and reconstruction have been identified. Overviews have been produced according to three different scales of focus: 'Biographies of place' (discussing locations as means and media of changing meanings), 'Memorials and memorialisation' (debating the public capturing of memories and the ways form affects the reiterations of history) and 'Post-conflict landscapes' (focussing on the construction of memory-scapes, subjective landscapes and the seepage of emotion, claims and meanings between spaces and contexts).
Impact and recommendations
Impact arises from the academic importance of the research conducted (including substantial new data sets, conceptual tools and interpretations), its accessibility and how it will encourage further studies and debates. Impact is also gained through wider dissemination activities (such as the website, CRIC youtube channel, iPhone applications and exhibitions). One of the conclusions of the research was that generic policy recommendations on heritage reconstruction after conflict are not necessary helpful and at times extremely counterproductive. To be constructive and to avoid pitfalls any generic policy recommendations must be solidly based on a variety of situations rather than assume universal and common traits. Recommendations must be carefully tailored towards the needs of specific situations and the responsibility of specific heritage bodies. Nonetheless, CRIC recommends that: Heritage should not be used as a means of escalating conflicts; and its potential for playing a part in peace processes, reconciliation and the rebuilding of society in the widest sense should be explored and enhanced.
Conclusion
The results of the CRIC project are many and varied. Collectively they provide an important basis for theorising the role of heritage in post-conflict situations and for critical, forward-orientated thinking about how to design and manage reconstruction efforts after conflict. Dissemination activities have explored various forms and outlets which aim at increasing awareness of the complex role of heritage; many of these activities will be ongoing after the end of the project.
Project context and Objectives:
The CRIC project answered a Seventh Framework Programme (FP7) socioeconomic science and humanities (SSH) call in 2007 for research on 'Histories and identities', specifically the 'articulation of national and European identities'. The project sought to produce results that would have relevance to a number of other areas including contributing to the body of research into 'diversities and commonalities in Europe' (activity area 8.5.2) and 'conflicts, peace and human rights' (activity area 8.4.2). The project also related to and articulates with a number of EC FP7 projects in recent years that make the formation of a European identity their focus. CRIC provides, therefore, an important contribution within the growing constellation of projects investigating the nature and formation of European identities and, through its lens of cultural heritage and the range of disciplinary background of its researchers, the CRIC project brings a unique and original perspective to these debates.
As the European Union (EU) enlarges to include new member-states its constituency continues to diversify. As a consequence of Europe's history, the EU embraces countries that have often found themselves on opposite sides of battle lines in the past as well as countries that have experienced acute internal conflicts. Through the current enlargement of the EU these embedded differences are becoming even more pronounced as the conflicts that have affected many of the new or forthcoming member-states are recent and still part of living memory. This adds considerably to the challenge of developing a common base, an appreciation of belonging that the different groups can all feel a part of. The common reference to 'a shared heritage as a basis for a shared future' has been at the heart of this project, both in terms of problematising the simplicity of such quotes and in terms of developing a more robust and thus useful, understanding of how heritage can be simultaneously shared and particularistic. While misuse of history and the abuse of culture for the purposes of waging war might not be a direct cause of contemporary conflicts, there is no question as to its lasting effect on how societies see themselves and others, transforming collective memory and identity. It is essential to develop an understanding of how the qualities of European cultural heritage mean that it is rooted in different and often discrepant historic narratives. The ability to successfully live with the diversities and commonalities that abide in Europe is dependent on the willingness to understand, appreciate and accept this diversity. This research has endeavoured to give a stronger basis for understanding how a cohesive sense of being European can come to coexist with other identities and how both are rooted in our sense of history and heritage. It is through these important links that the research has been able to investigate how different identities are formed and expressed following damage as a result of conflict at different scales.
In recent years heritage studies has grown significantly in importance and visibility within university courses and within the public sphere. This has been in response to a number of factors ranging from the increased importance of the tourist industry, re-appreciation of the potential of museums and cultural institutions in producing narratives of belonging, in response to changing relations to indigenous people and source communities and in response to the growing appreciation of the significance roles the cultural heritage, in its many forms, plays in the formation of society. This mushrooming in institutions, publications, activities and the emerging of new academic fields of studies raised the need to develop an empirically based theoretical grounding for the field as well as the development of adequate methodologies and analytic frameworks. Within this field, there has been a growing recognition of the important links between heritage and identity as well as awareness of the destructive relationship between conflict and the cultural heritage. These relationships had, however, only been worked on in a fragmentary manner, a fragmentation of the knowledge base that has partly come as a result of the different disciplines that work on related aspects of these interconnected aspects without a bridging intellectual framework. The research of the CRIC project has therefore provided a much needed systematic and comparative data set relevant to these discussions, as well as being a model for how various disciplines can cooperate around these newly emerging intellectual fields of study.
At its broadest level, the project has explored the interrelation between identity, conflict and cultural heritage. Throughout Europe, national and regional identities are in the process of being formed and are influenced by local and regional histories. There are many ways of approaching and studying these relationships; the CRIC project has examined how the cultural heritage, both material and symbolic, is involved. The relationships have been analysed through the particular lens of the destruction and subsequent attempts at regaining the cultural heritage that used to exist. This can be likened to a process of losing and then reacquiring the reference points of one's identity.
The focus of the research project was accordingly twofold:
1. The nature of and intentions behind, the destruction of the cultural heritage was scrutinised with the aim of clarifying, for example, whether we witness different kinds of intentions (their reasons and aims), different levels of destruction (total or partial) and whether the material focal point of such destructions are clearly articulated and selected.
2. The project explored the role of cultural heritage in post-conflict scenarios. For example, is a new fabric of meaning and memory woven into the reconstruction rhetoric and how does this take place? How, by whom and with what intentions are parts of the heritage selected for reconstruction and other parts ignored? And what are the longer-term trajectories of these processes?
The progress of the regional studies, as well as the comparisons, was monitored through the completion of a series of milestones and deliverables which ensured that the project objectives were met. Approaching these questions from a heritage standpoint allowed an in-depth analysis of the dynamics of identity formation in its interrelation with the material world, with attitudes and behaviour as well as with the more intangible symbolic layers of significance that constitute the landscape of identity. While these questions acted as the basis for the development of a comparative understanding of the relationship between heritage, identity and conflict individual regional WPs also sought to illuminate more historically specific questions with the aim of addressing a number of WP objectives as well as contributing to the overarching project objectives.
Project results:
Description of work performed
The work performed has taken place at two levels, namely case study specific research conducted by the WPs and research and planning taking place through the consortium as a research community.
The research of the work packages (WPs) has involved collecting primary data, data analysis, writing and engaging in various forms of dissemination activities.
Data collection: The shared focus of the project on the destruction and reconstruction of specific sites means that substantial archival research has been carried out. This work was conducted during periods one and two with some additional archival research conducted at the start of period three to answer specific questions arising from the feedback received at annual consortium meetings (ACM), recommendations of the steering committee (SC) and in cases where additional sites were added to the WP case studies.
A substantial amount of fieldwork has also been conducted. Once again the majority of this work was carried out in the first two periods of the project with supplementary field visits in the final period. These additional periods of fieldwork have been particularly important in cases where the WPs have been investigating annual commemorative events where repeated visits, year-on-year, have allowed observation of the changes in memorial practices through time. To provide a wider range of case studies suitable for our three overarching thematic topics some additional sites were selected. The fieldwork has been very successful. In particular, it adds a 'grounding' effect to the case studies as the sites investigated are experienced and the nuances of the interplay between sites and their wider environment - physical, social and political but also in more ephemeral ways - are recognised and included in the analyses.
Data analysis and writing: Most of the work of the analysis of data collected and the writing up of the case studies was necessarily done in the final project period, however some analysis was carried out during the collection phases in period two. This manner of working ensured that themes and areas of interest emerging from the data analysis could be shared with the research consortium, comparisons between cases studied drawn out and core issues addressed and investigated through further archive research or fieldwork as required. The sites have been written up in a number of forms. Apart from other publications, most of the case studies contribute to a series of three volumes to be produced by the CRIC project, with case studies being published independently within journals relevant to certain academic disciplines or regions, or receiving individual treatment in specific monographs or regional syntheses.
Dissemination: Academic publications represent the principle form of dissemination and several monographs and peer reviewed journal articles have already been produced. A publication plan has been agreed for the remaining case studies and three collaborative volumes and a special issue journal are forthcoming. Other forms of dissemination produced include exhibitions, documentary films and a series of short films introducing the WP case studies made publicly available on CRIC project Youtube and Vimeo channels. In addition project partners have carried out radio and television interviews and their work has been reported on in numerous press articles. The research has been presented to both academic and non-academic audiences at conferences, workshops and roundtable discussions.
In addition to work carried out at the level of the WP the consortium as a research community provided an important forum which was both intellectually beneficial and challenging to each partner. The consortium acted as a hub for the intellectual and practical work of the project. The management team focussed on ensuring deliverables were met and providing assistance to the regional WPs to ensure that each worked according to its objectives and work plan. ACM and SC meetings (SCM) were an important element in the maintenance of the high academic standards as well as in developing the comparative dimension of the research. All meetings were chaired by the project's principle investigator (PI) Marie Louise Stig Sørensen and guidance was continuously forthcoming in terms of overall aims, standards and theoretical framework for the project - as a whole and in terms of its parts - from the project's academic advisors. Detailed minutes of each meeting were taken and meeting reports were written and circulated amongst the project partners by WP1 administrator Ben Davenport. A major contribution of the project is the production of some of the results within three overarching themes (each to be published as a volume). The themes are 'Biographies of place', 'Memorials and anniversaries' and 'Subjective landscapes'. The volumes each present the project research at a different scale of analysis and in terms of different topoi developed by the project through their collaborative work.
While the general account of the work performed demonstrates the breadth and depth of the research and its obvious comparative value, the activities of the individual WPs best illustrate the manner in which the different historical contexts under investigation and the expertise of the different disciplines brought to bear on the study regions enriched the results and foreground that the project was able to produce.
Thematic summary of results
CRIC has made considerable theoretical contribution to our understanding of the varied and complex roles heritage plays in the reconstruction of society after conflict including its potential negative impact. Archival research and fieldwork have led to substantial added knowledge and the project has developed important analytical concepts. Through the case studies substantial new knowledge and understanding of specific places and how they came to play important roles in European memory, have been gained and through comparison major common characteristics of the processes unfolding through their destruction and reconstruction have been identified.
The final results of the project take three forms:
1. analysis based on specific case studies and resulting comparison and synthesis,
2. core analytical concepts and
3. findings and recommendations.
Analysis based on specific case studies and resulting comparison and synthesis
Archival research and fieldwork have led to substantial added knowledge within a number of academic fields. The research has provided data, documentation and insight into a number of key areas of research. At a finer resolution this includes a better understanding of the destruction and reconstruction of a range of cultural heritage sites in Europe and a detailed tracking of changes in their meaning and societal roles. In addition to knowledge about buildings and monuments the project has added to the understanding of the formation of specific memorial sites and their general as well as specific impacts. This has included providing examples of their important roles in the narration of history and their interaction with memory. The results of the project demonstrate that these sites are the location for major and under acknowledged processes of identity formation and reaffirmation, resulting in the complex links between heritage and identity claims having become better elucidated. CRIC research has added substantially to the understanding of the processes behind the emergence of symbols and iconic places and through the case studies has provided a means of understanding the impacts of different parts of the heritage and the heritage discourse. Finally the use of both the destruction and reconstruction of cultural heritage sites to articulate claims has been traced and their use in politics as a means of punishment, revenge, blame and reparation identified. The results have demonstrated that heritage is not an innocent bystander, but plays a part in conflict and post-conflict rhetoric and actions Through comparison we have identified major common characteristics of the processes involved in the reconstruction of cultural heritage after conflict, such as its adherence to a number of phases which are characterised by distinct concerns and different claims that should be taken into account in future reconstruction efforts. Memorialisation practices emerge in the early phases and act as continuous reminders of the conflict. The partial and conflict-orientated character of most memorials and anniversaries should therefore be recognised and new forms explored. It should also be recognised that civil society and interest groups often play dominant roles in setting the aims of reconstruction; the danger of this is that reconstruction may be hijacked by narrow interest groups which have been created by the conflict itself. The research also shows that ideological objectives are often present within memorialisation practices and they often influence the reconstruction strategies and objectives. The project case studies indicate that critical attention is needed to understand the impact of these objectives regarding both the tangible and intangible heritage. The results also show that heritage reconstruction can have a negative impact on the regeneration of society in some cases, as it may become an example of war 'through other means'. The societal impact of the reconstructions therefore needs to be understood and guided.
Based on the research we have developed several core analytical concepts. These have been explored in detail through project monographs and volumes and include the following:
1. grassroots memorialisation
2. essentialising heritage
3. institutionalisation of heritage
4. distributed memorialscapes.
The project consortium has reached results and recommendations that will be relevant to policy statements. The recommendations will be formulated to address perceived shortcomings in current legislation and guidance on the reconstruction of cultural heritage following conflict. They address how reconstruction initiatives should:
1. avoid practices which allow the reconstruction of cultural heritage to become the focus for the continuation of conflict by another means
2. maintain an emphasis on authenticity without marginalising local populations during the reconstruction process
3. exhibit financial scrutiny of donors and external funding sources to avoid the alienation of groups or development of conflict-full symbolic attachments or creating a sense of exclusive ownership
4. ensure that cultural heritage is disassociated from issues of establishing truth and claims
5. commit to the long term engagement and monitoring of cultural heritage reconstructions projects to ensure greater integration of reconstructed sites with locales and communities
6. make transparent the political and social aims of reconstruction projects and the meanings that are being promoted through the sites.
There are several ways in which the results arising from the research of the CRIC project could be further summarised. The project foreground has been described in detail in the preceding section, so here we select to focus on the thematic foci of the three project volumes, as this is not only a major academic outcome of the project but also a good representation of the synthesis and comparisons that have been drawn from the case studies. The volumes speak to the comparative dimensions and interdisciplinarity of the research produced by the consortium as well as the multiple scales of analysis that it has given rise to. The volumes reflect on three different scales of concerns: 'Biographies of place' (discussing locations as means and media of changing meanings), 'Memorials and anniversaries' (debating the public capturing of memories and the ways form affects the reiterations of history) and 'Subjective landscapes' (focussing on the construction of memory-scapes, subjective landscapes and the seepage of emotion, claims and meanings between spaces and contexts).
Biographies of place
By focussing of the biography of single sites, be they monuments, buildings, cemeteries, or battlefields, the WPs were able to present detailed accounts of the changes that these places undergo through time and to identify common characteristics. A point of comparison is the fate of the physical traces and vestiges of conflict in the context of reconstruction and how they affect the understanding of the reconstructions themselves. The case of Verdun, for instance, reveals the power and agency of the physical traces of war, as well as the reconstructions, in shaping later responses and interpretations. The case studies also reveal and analyse how the materiality of places is worked into claims about perpetrator and victim identities. Such connections between the physical remains and the insistence on identities were consistently found to be an import dimension of the reconstruction - through their physical affects places are called on to act as witnesses to acts of violence and destruction and are used as platforms or foils for peoples, groups or countries claims on and about those events. In addition, the case studies show that the physicality and rootedness of heritage sites are commonly used to testify to the long-standing presence of a group or to provide territorial backing for group identities.
Tracing such individual stories the volume aims at 'thick description' of particular places in order to establish a sound empirical grounding for theoretical interpretations of the relationship between destruction, reconstruction, meanings and identities. Recognising the anthropomorphising tendency inherent in the use of a biographical structure the volume shows how this approach is nonetheless very well suited to reflect on the processes and mechanisms involved. It provides a means of focussing on and thus identifying how mainstream meanings are generated, on how and why subversive alteration and ruptures in the meaning of a site arise and how different factors, intensions and possibilities commingle to give particular places specific meaning, including them becoming iconic places or acting as 'lieux de mémoire'. The concept is also useful in paying attention to the effects of age, to the accruement of meaning and the overflow of former understandings and uses - the baggage of history that is always also a part of the present whether actively explored or suppressed. The biographical approach helps us to incorporate in our analyses the realisation that heritage is never devoid of meaning. The approach thus allowed the project researchers to purposefully and closely track the changing meanings associated with particular places through time. In some instance this could be envisaged as a series of stages, as was the case in changing priorities of meaning at the battlefield of Dybbøl or the change in the types of memory emphasised at Verdun with a move from 'the time of living memory' to 'the time of history'. In other cases associations and understandings of what sites represent are caught up in discourses that are deeply conflicted and show much less a sense of progression through stages, this seems to be the case in both Spain and Cyprus.
The project's concentration on the tangible heritage constituted by the monuments and buildings being studied does not however neglect the intangible aspects of post-conflict heritage but rather argues that such a distinction is largely unhelpful. Through focussing on the physical places the relationships to more ephemeral practices, rituals or traditions are unavoidable drawn into the story and in effect included in the analysis. The analysis, for instance, of access to the battlefield of Dybbøl illuminated the process through which a 'distributed memorial landscape' forms within other spheres such as art, literature and collective memory, when physical access is denied.
Memorials and anniversaries
The study of memorials and anniversary events and practices used a different lens as it focussed on events and activities, thus making the theme of temporality and change central to the analysis. The fluidity of memorial practices is a central theme of several of the case studies and is thoroughly discussed and analysed in this volume. While not a surprising finding, it is an important theme that needs further exploration because it means that contrary to their tendency to appeal to and appear as 'tradition' memorials and anniversaries are inherently unstable cultural forms. At the same time, it is only through analysis of the details of the forms of specific anniversary as they unfold over a period that this instability of the meaning-content can be revealed and the degree to which their associated practices change fully appreciated. A central aspect of the case studies presented is the analysis of how and why their formats change.
To enhance the comparative dimension the individual case studies have used similar analytical structures and shared intellectual aims. For instance, in various ways the case studies use the idea of performances as a frame through which the changes that occur can be analysed in terms of actors, the stage setting, the atmosphere and the rhetoric at memorial events. In addition, core concerns running through the different case studies included questions about how and when does mourning become memorialisation and what influences the format of anniversary events? The time depth represented by the CRIC case studies allowed the project to consider such processes in relation to cases which span from almost 150 years to 15 years in their duration. In addition, investigation of the memorial practices relating to specific events has helped to develop specific analytical concepts or interpretive tropes. The anniversaries linked to the bombing of Gernika and the bombing of Dresden respectively, for example, have allowed the project to develop idea such as the 'explosion of modern myths' through the work of Dacia Viejo Rose and the 'institutionalisation of memory' based on the work of Karl-Siegbert Rehberg.
All the case studies reveal a strong political involvement and the (con)fusion between political strategies (whether group based or that of the state) and mourning is repeatedly observed. In the case of the anniversary of the Srebrenica massacre this is particularly visible and the increased accruement of political overtones onto the mourning of the tragic event can be traced over just a few years. The volume shows how through such mergers between politics and emotions anniversaries and memorials often become rallying points and a focus for claims on reparation or identity or for revenge. The volume identifies claims as a central element of many of the collective expressions of mourning or commemoration. These claims are often backward looking based on needs for recognition of what has taken place, but a particular form of claims take a different format and uses the event for political critique and action. Cristina Sanchez Carretero has developed the concept of 'Grassroots memorials' to identify this form of memorialisation and the elements that constitute these popular expressions of loss and reaction. Memorials, like the other forms of post-conflict heritage investigate by the project, are shown to be used to make statements regarding values. They may have an important healing effect, but can also become involved in competitive memorialisation and become a rallying point for claims and counter-claims. Rather than acting as a point of reconciliation memorialisation, they can be a medium through which hurtful histories can persist, be transmitted, compared or relativised. Through these processes conflict can be exacerbated or continued.
Subjective landscapes
In this volume the project considered the heritage landscape at a scale of analysis through which the relationship between places can be recognised. Several of the case studies deal with landscapes, both urban and rural, their destruction during conflict and subsequent reconstruction. The focus on various kinds of scapes allowed the researchers to investigate both the imaginative and experienced landscapes as well as the physical places; indeed discussing the relationship between these different kinds of landscapes and how they are impacted and formed through the processes of destruction and reconstruction is a main concern of this volume. Through various case studies the project has identified and developed concepts for the analysis of the way that significance or symbolism attached to important places appears to seep or expand to encompass areas, both physically and conceptually, beyond the immediate bounds of a site. This process sees geographically and even chronologically distinct sites and events become associated in a network of symbols and topoi through which collective memory and meanings are formed. The work on heritage landscapes at the same time aims to better define the often uncritically use of terms such as heritage-scape and memory-scape by exploring in detail the relationships between people, places and identity in post-conflict contexts.
Conclusion
Through the CRIC research and fieldwork substantial added knowledge has been produced that provides significant insight into the processes of destruction and reconstruction of cultural heritage and the impact of both of these on the recovery of society after conflict. Through case studies new knowledge and understanding of specific places and how they came to play important roles in European memory, has been reached. The project has investigated 25 case studies ranging in time from the mid-19th century to ongoing conflicts and covering urban and rural heritagescapes. On this basis thorough comparison has been possible and major common characteristics involved in the reconstruction of cultural heritage after conflicts have been identified and their significance analysed. Important theoretical concepts have been developed which will strengthen further research into these processes and relationships. The foundation of recommendations to be tailor made for a number of specific institutions and public bodies has also been formulated. The data, in itself a substantial new archive and the analysis provide an important basis for theorising the relationship between heritage and identity in post-conflict situations and for critical and forward-thinking decisions about how to design and manage reconstruction efforts after conflict.
The project has sought dissemination through academic and non-academic channels to ensure wide academic and societal impact. In addition to monographs and articles the project has communicated very successfully through its website and through its Youtube and Vimeo channels. It has also created a public assessable visual archive and disseminated through exhibitions, maps, iPhone applications and the media.
The project has been extremely successful in creating a trans-disciplinary network of researchers from different parts of Europe, united around a significant intellectually and politically challenging topic. This network will continue to exist into the future due to the strong personal and intellectual links that have been created.
Potential impact:
People throughout the world try to live with the immediate as well as long term effects and scars of conflict and violence, including effects that influence their sense of identity, rights to existence and claims upon the future as their cultural heritage has been destroyed, defamed or taken away from them. Through such destructions their notion of heritage, their feelings of being part of something and belonging somewhere, has become damaged. Issues of importance for the welfare of societies are therefore involved in the processes of destruction and reconstruction of cultural heritage after conflict as they impact on communities' relationship to place and society. Investigating these processes and increasing awareness of their importance therefore have high social impact and implications.
The importance of cultural heritage reconstruction after conflict has been recognised for a long time and international policies, as well as guidelines and established practices, exist. Nonetheless investment in reconstruction often fails in terms of wider cultural objectives and social and political consequences; this is why the results from the CRIC projects are important and have the potential for substantial societal impact. The motivations behind deliberate destruction of cultural heritage remain poorly understood, as are the motivations behind reconstructions and their short as well as long term impacts. It is only by analysing these processes and by drawing comparison between case studies representing different dimensions of these relationships that we can create a platform for further debates about the purposes and consequences of reconstruction and only through such debates and clarity of aims will it be possible to formulate informed recommendations for policymakers, practitioners and various regional actors about why and how parts of the cultural heritage should be reconstructed. The result of the CRIC project show that we need to stress that reconstruction is not merely a matter of design and resources - at stake is the re-visioning of society and the reclaiming of identity! Creating this awareness is in itself a major social impact and our dissemination products will help to build that awareness beyond the life of the project.
Reconstruction and recovery are, in one form or another, a necessary response to destruction and conflict; there are practical as well as social, cultural and psychological reasons for reconstructions and they come with potentially substantial political and financial rewards. The range of official and semi-official bodies involved with the safeguarding of heritage during conflict and with reconstruction afterwards has expanded greatly since the 1950s and the investment, both through human resources and finance, in heritage reconstruction after conflict is vast and politically complex. It is equally clear, however, that reconstruction efforts often have unforeseen, unintended, or even undesirable consequences, as when it leads to competitive claims on heritage or erase former multi-vocal, fluid and socially complex understandings and uses of the heritage. Through detailed case studies and comparison the CRIC project has been able to identify some of the mechanisms that can cause such contestations and claims around reconstructions. It has, for example, identified the close link between, on one hand, memorials and anniversary events and, on the other reconstruction, as extremely complex and often counterproductive as the former present themselves as the focus of claims and easily become instruments of control over (and manipulation of) how events are understood and become part of the public psyche.
The principal CRIC disseminations are academic publications and presentations and the project has a high impact in terms of the amount and the wide ranging academic output it has produced; but these kinds of impacts can only be demonstrated through time. The societal impact arising from the academic importance of the research is in terms of how these will affect the ways these relationships are debated and how they are analysed and interpreted. This impact arises from the synthesis work of CRIC and its unique ability to draw comparisons and from its detailed analysis of case studies and the resulting expansion of our knowledge. An importance impact is also the substantial new data sets, conceptual tools and interpretations that have been produced, as they will encourage further studies and debates within this area, help setting new research agendas and supporting research with empirical data. The societal impact of this aspect of the project takes place within academia and higher education and through that will benefit society at large, although indirectly.
Societal impact arises directly from the research's identification of major common characteristics of the processes involved in the reconstruction of cultural heritage after conflict; these are important both for further academic studies and practice. CRIC has also developed important analytical concepts that will have major impact on future studies of the role of heritage in post-conflict societies.
The wider societal implications of the identification of these characteristic processes and the concepts that can be used in their analysis are clear. Together such insights provide an important basis for theorising the relationship between heritage and identity in post-conflict situations and the tools for critical, imaginative and forward-thinking decisions about how to design and manage reconstruction efforts after conflict.
The societal implications of research into post-conflict heritage are simultaneously obvious and yet subtle and difficult to capture in single statements. The important challenges with regard to recommendations about reconstruction and thus the need to simplify and generalise insight, are well captured in the problems the project encountered when attempting to reach policy recommendations. The heritage field is rich in policies and recommendations and we had originally foreseen that the project results would be able to simply add to these. What we had not foreseen was that some of the problems that arise are in themselves to some extent caused by the rigidity of existing recommendations or and more commonly and with greater perseverance, due to misappropriation and misinterpretation of what the guidelines and policies say. Studying processes almost as they unfold, whether related to the reconstruction of the Mostar Bridge in Bosnia Herzegovina, the construction of memorials for the victims of the Madrid bombing, or the reinstatement of an 1854 war memorial in north Germany in 2011, we learned that conflict and contestation are ever present and that the strong emotive involvement in the events (whether current or in the past) means that reconstruction is a potential minefield of misunderstandings. A major insight of the project of substantial societal impact is therefore that making recommendations about heritage protection and reconstruction during conflict is extremely complex and should be formulated with great care, exploring both bottom-up and top-down perspectives. We conclude that generic policy recommendations on heritage reconstruction after conflict are not necessary helpful and at times extremely counterproductive. To be constructive and to avoid pitfalls any generic policy recommendations must be solidly based on a variety of situations rather than assume universal and common traits.
Rather than formulating specific recommendations the project has therefore formulated one foundation statement and outlined the content of future recommendations to be detailed and tailor-made in dialogue with stakeholders or through identification of their specific weaknesses. Each of these has high and obvious societal impact.
Foundation statement:
It is important that the necessary investment in heritage is efficient and reaches its objectives. Heritage should not be used as a means of escalating conflicts and its potential for playing a part in peace processes, reconciliation and the rebuilding of society in the widest sense should be enhanced.
In addition, CRIC has achieved substantial societal impact through its wide ranging dissemination activities, such as the website, CRIC youtube and Vimeo channels, iPhone application and exhibitions that have aimed at raising awareness more widely about the potentials and problems of heritage reconstruction. Recognising the difference between dissemination and impact, the project has aimed to document the impact in the form of use of its publicly disseminated resources and user statistics for the online websites produced by the project, as well as quotations, comments and feedback. This means that the project has been able to assess its impact both quantitatively and qualitatively. The documentation of usage has focussed on the activities of WP1 and the dissemination it has organised on behalf of the CRIC project. The reasons for this are that regional WPs did not have the administrative support to collect user statistics (for example for the exhibition in Dresden), that WP1 was able to focus on disseminations relevant to all the WPs and that due to the experimental nature of some of the dissemination activities, such as the usefulness of Youtube as a higher education teaching resource, we 'tested' them out through United Kingdom (UK) contacts.
Material produced by the CRIC project has received excellent feedback from educators at Secondary to Postgraduate University level. Films made to introduce aspects of the CRIC research have been taken up and used for presentations and as teaching tools. Comments received by the project as a result of consultation with lecturers, teachers, students and researchers about the usefulness of these films as an academic resource have included phrases about them being fascinating films, a great resource, films that can be used as a teaching aid and to start seminar discussion; one quote suggested "These videos will be more useful than a mountain of reports!". The responses represent an important area of impact for the project.
The impacts of the CRIC project are many and varied. Collectively they provide an important basis for theorising the role of heritage in post-conflict situations and for critical and forward thinking approaches to the design and management of reconstruction efforts after conflict. Overall, the impacts of our activities have been extremely high, although, obviously, the real impact will be felt in years to come as the academic publications begin to affect the discussion and awareness of the significant roles reconstruction have in the recovery of society after conflict, as the wider dissemination materials become increasingly used and as we will be able to work with policy makers in the refinement of existing policies and guidelines.
Main dissemination activities
As predicted in the description of work, dissemination has taken place throughout the lifetime of the project and as outputs has taken different forms; both academic and public engagement. We had anticipated that regional WPs would participate in local events, art projects, museum outreach activities, school visits, community based activities, etc. This has all taken place, but in different ways and to different degrees according to local situations. There has, for instance been substantial engagement with artistic production in the work on both Dresden and Gernika, whereas WP1 has made presentations and used questionnaires in schools and Cyprus has explored the media in a number of ways and arranged several public events. All WPs have participated in local events and all have explored one or more media outlet for outreach.
It was anticipated that we would present data using formats such as digital video disc (DVD), compact disc (CD), digital data and online visual and audio archives. For public dissemination it was decided to replace the production of DVD and CDs with youtube and Vimeo films as these were a more cutting-edge media and, primarily, because this allowed us to reach a much wider audience. The production of an iPhone application was similarly not anticipated at the time when the project was designed but represents a response to new media opportunities that are emerging. An online image catalogues was created, but interview data have not been placed online for ethical reasons. Such data will be screened by the individual researcher and made accessible through their research in an appropriate manner.
The principle dissemination is academic publications and presentations and the project has a high impact in terms of the amount of presentations made during the project. Most WPs have or are in the process of producing a regional project volume synthesising the results of their work. All WPs have at least one major dissemination outcome but in two cases these are not in the form of publication. The major delivered outcome for Dresden is a major exhibition with catalogue (an English translation of the German text being finalised by the end of the reporting period), whereas for Bosnia it is the construction of an important data set. In additions to the single authored volumes, edited volumes, guest editions of journals, papers, databases and catalogues, a series of three shared volumes are being produced. These volumes focus on post-conflict scenarios at three different scales represented by 'Biographies of place', 'Memorials and anniversaries' and 'Subjective landscapes'.
The project website (see http://www.cric.arch.cam.ac.uk online) has acted as the public face of the project. It has been extremely successful with more than 180 695 hits since its launch. It provides links to the other online resources produced by the project. This includes the project photo archive held in the University of Cambridge digital repository Dspace, which is open access and now holds more than 900 images; it has received more than 80 400 hits (see http://www.dspace.cam.ac.uk/handle/1810/214815 online). The website will be made 'static' shortly after the end of the project in order to ensure a maintenance-free web presence beyond the life of the project. Various formats for maintaining the research community post-project and building informal networks on the subject of post-conflict heritage and identity are being discussed. This will utilise different forms of social media and all project members have expressed a strong wish to maintain contact.
In order to reach an extensive audience outside academia Lindy Fleming, a British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) journalist, was employed as a part time communications officer with the management team during the end of the project to help all project researchers to identify and use new dissemination outlets. The resulting disseminations acted as supplements to the individual researcher's own academic and other dissemination activities, which have also been considerably including exhibitions and the development of posters with an iPhone application for several sites in Spain. The challenge was to decide sensible communication priorities in terms of resources (including time and other commitments) and to develop ways of presenting the complex research insights in formats suitable for a wide audience and in a manner that represented the 'spirit' of the project. This meant research outcomes had to be presented in an interesting and stimulating manner, but also in a manner easy to digest and at the same time able to communicate complex points and encourage interest and curiosity about the themes. As part of this dissemination strategy, the following tasks were carried out:
1. identified research outcomes suitable for news and feature articles
2. identified likely media outlets; drew up a diary of opportunities and pitfalls to be avoided
3. briefed researchers on the requirements necessary for effective dissemination
4. identified high profile, low cost dissemination possibilities
5. studied other dissemination efforts to ensure best practice.
Lindy Fleming made extensive and sustained contacts with planning editors and journalists to offer interviews and raise the profile of the research project within newsrooms and feature offices in Europe. Based on her experience and feedback from newsrooms the project decided to utilise links between research results and major cultural-historical events on which project members could offer academic insight and expert views. These have included for instance the activities surrounding the 13 February anniversary in Dresden for which were arranged: a BBC radio interview for Matthias Neutzner with BBC Berlin Correspondent Stephen Evans for BBC radio outlets; a live interview with Matthias Neutzner for the 'Sunday show' Radio4 and BBC television, national news and world service outlets; an interview with Marie Louise Stig Sorensen with BBC Berlin correspondent, Stephen Evans. These interviews were broadcast on 13 and 14 February 2011. Another example was in conjunction with the 12th annual Cambridge heritage seminar 'The heritage of memorials and commemorations' in Cambridge on 15 and 16 April 211 and the Cambridge festival of ideas on 22 October 2011. Research papers and opinion pieces were sent to 'Thinking allowed' and the Cambridge University press office, resulting a several published pieces on these events, (refer to http://www.cam.ac.uk/research/features/how-will-we-remember-them/ as well as to http://www.cam.ac.uk/research/discussion/do-memorials-matter/ online). Marie Louise Stig Sørensen gave an interview on 'The today programme' on BBC radio, a programme with approximately 7.15 million weekly listeners and known to be particularly popular with politicians, policy makers and journalists.
Further press releases were also given. A release concerning memorial heritage in Tuzla, Bosnia Herzegovina, was provided in May 2011 with the result that research by Ioannis Armakolas appeared as a front page article on Transconflict (see http://www.transconflict.com online) on 10 June 2011 and saw the beginning of ongoing cooperation with editor and Guardian contributor Ian Bancroft. On 6 August a four-page spread on Ioannis Armakolas' research in Tuzla and the CRIC project appeared in the prestigious Bosnian paper Oslobodjenje. In addition WP6 project leader Dzenan Sahovic is regularly consulted by journalist for comment on developments in Bosnia Herzegovina and the events in the region. Researchers from Dresden and Cyprus are similarly regularly used by their local and national press.
Another example is the coverage of the return of the Isted Lion monument to Germany in September 2011, a case study investigated by WP1, two press releases on the Isted Lion monument were written by Marie Louise Stig Sørensen. An opinion pieces by Dr Sørensen appeared on the websites Euractiv (see http://www.euractiv.com/culture/returning-disputed-war-monuments-heritage-reinterpreted-analysis-507471 online) and Transconflict (refer to http://www.transconflict.com/2011/09/returning-disputed-war-monuments-269/ online). Numerous other interviews and articles were published relating to the CRIC project research and project members' opinions are regularly sought on the issue of post-conflict heritage. A fuller list of press coverage has been provided online on the research and innovation participant portal under project 'dissemination activities'.
In support of dissemination activities the following activities were offered to researchers and followed up by many of the WPs:
1. links established with a variety of organisations including Cambridge University press office and community affairs office to enable researchers to make use of a range of dissemination resources
2. youtube and Vimeo channels set up with 17 films commissioned and uploaded
3. visiting communications expert Prof. Helen Weinstein was consulted to gain a variety of views on best practice. She also conducted a briefing session with researchers.
4. EU portals contacted and used
5. direct public engagement undertaken through a CRIC events at the festival of ideas
6. support offered by WP1 for the many individual and group dissemination efforts carried out by researchers themselves. This included advice on press releases, editorial support, feature ideas, press contacts and liaison with editors and journalists.
7. e-marketing strategies used to promote awareness of research film channels.
A major dissemination activity was the development of youtube and Vimeo channels aimed at communicating widely and beyond academic circles. During periods one and two the CRIC research project established documentary strands within the WPs working in Cyprus, Dresden and Madrid. It was decided to build on these resources and skills to further non-academic dissemination and to both utilise and present the striking visual aspects of many of the case studies. Establishing a channel on youtube became a priority to provide an attractive, time efficient and controlled dissemination outlet that could be used to convey complex research ideas in a format that was easily understood. To be effective the channel would need to be 'active' with regular uploads not only to reflect as much of the work as possible but to ensure there would be impact through continuing traffic on the site. Throughout all activities it was a paramount concern that the research outcomes were not compromised. The aims were:
1. to produce a series of low cost films to give a general audience an overview of CRIC research and to make introductions to several of the case studies
2. to provide media material that could be used as an additional teaching tool for use in European schools and universities
3. to provide a post-project dissemination outlet.
The distribution of the links to the youtube was a major challenge for the researchers pushing us well beyond our comfort zone. We made use of the following methods:
1. sustained e-marketing was used to reach a wide audience
2. postcards with the web addresses were produced for distribution at conferences
3. all researchers encouraged to embed videos on relevant webpages
4. links added to comments on webpages and social media sites such as Facebook and Reddit (see http://www.reddit.com/user/CRICResearch/ online).
Emails were also sent to organisations related to heritage research including University history and archaeology departments, history curriculum advisers, EU officers and institutions, cultural heritage organisations, newspaper and broadcasting planning desks, University of Cambridge press office, other FP7 projects and contacts at United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO).
This resulted in 17 films uploaded to youtube and 10 films uploaded to Vimeo, including a 24 minute Dresden presentation. Films were embedded on the CRIC website and other high traffic and relevant websites and are now picked up by widely used search engines e.g. Google, Bing and Interceder, giving high viewing figures in United States of America (USA) as well as in Europe. It has been confirmed that the films will be use as a teaching resource in universities by a number of academic teaching staff. One of the highlights of the feedback was received from the historical association, which has a vast membership among history teachers and is very active in steering them to resources. The association has agreed to put links to the CRIC research website, youtube and Vimeo channels on their website (see http://www.history.org.uk/resources/secondary_resource_5267.html online).
As an example of other dissemination activities and how the CRIC project tried to experiment with and learn from different formats, is the CRIC organised public workshop at the University of Cambridge festival of ideas. The workshop was on the complex theme of memorials and asked 'Do memorials matter?' It presented results of our research as part of the event which took place on 22 October 2011. The aims were to attempt to:
1. engage directly with the public and see whether such workshops can be used as a forum for discussion of topics the public rarely is consulted on (and to learn from that experience)
2. highlight a number of CRIC case studies
3. use the event as an opportunity to gather data on local community opinion on memorial events through questionnaires attached to memory boxes
4. build contacts with local history and heritage groups.
More than 300 people took part in the CRIC festival of ideas event in different ways over a period of two weeks in answering questionnaires, taking part in discussions at the workshop and attending talks. Ages involved ranged from 12 to 91 years; more than a quarter were teenagers. Briefings at the venues where memory box were placed, including two sixth-form college classes, one lunch club and two homes for the elderly. Fifteen history groups, veterans associations and heritage groups were contacted and invited to attend and visits were made and information given out at cafes, the city central library, a doctors surgery and offices via student email system to encourage wide response to questionnaires and a good attendance at the workshop itself. In total 260 questionnaire responses have been collated and processed for further research use. Information on the CRIC research project appeared in the festival program and on University websites publicising the festival. History magazines received information on the project and this acted to increase its profile among specialist writers.
The aims of the event were to reach a large group and provide a public forum through which the project could help promote a greater public understanding of European heritage issues and reconstruction projects that are funded through international aid. This was largely achieved, with several additional outcomes being that researchers learning about outreach activities, a new heritage resource was provided for the local community in the form of a Cambridge memorial map devised and distributed by Ben Davenport (WP1). The map, which locates different types of memorials around Cambridge, was produced by the CRIC project management team and this data was requested by senior archaeologist Sally Croft from Cambridgeshire Historic Environment Record to update local heritage records and for use in their public engagement exercises. Based on filming carried out to document the event two films made, including 24-minute research presentation on Dresden. These films are available to view on the project youtube and Vimeo channels.
Post project dissemination
Beyond the end date of the project CRIC members continue to promote their results through the many forms of dissemination discussed. WP7 particularly has played a very active role in discussions and analysis of the events of the recent anniversary of the bombing of Dresden on 13 February 2012 within the media. Carsten Paludan-Muller has organising a meeting with the World Bank on post-conflict heritage in Oslo in April 2012, with Marie Louise Stig Sørensen participating as a heritage expert. Appendix D provides a list of some of the dissemination activities performed by the project WPs in the months following the end of the project. It is anticipated that this media interest in the CRIC research will continue as the contacts made and preparation work done by Lindy Fleming and the project partners comes to fruition and the profile of the project continues to develop. The static website, the DSpace image repository and the CRIC youtube and Vimeo channels are disseminations that will continue after the end of the project.
Dissemination activities summary
The project encouraged original, varied and adaptable dissemination methods to make sure the research work was noticed by a variety of audiences. Much more than originally anticipated was achieved and new ways of disseminating results were explored. A wide audience was reach and the impact of dissemination has been measurable in terms of quantitative and qualitative data. The CRIC dissemination activities explored a variety of forms and outlets in order to have an increased impact and increase general awareness of the complex role of heritage; many of these activities will be ongoing after the end of the project.
List of websites:
Public website address: http://www.cric.arch.cam.ac.uk
Dspace: http://www.dspace.cam.ac.uk/handle/1810/214815
Youtube: http://www.youtube.com/user/CRICResearchProject
The CRIC project was based on the recognition that cultural heritage plays important roles during conflict and post-conflict scenarios and that these are poorly understood. Cultural heritage - in forms such as architecture, archaeological sites, landscapes and museums - are damaged in times of conflict, including through deliberate targeting in order to inflict psychological harm. Recent conflicts have highlighted these connections, making the post-conflict reconstruction of cultural heritage an important cultural, political and socioeconomic concern. The CRIC project was a response to the urgent need for analysis in order to better comprehend these interconnections and eventually to formulate forward thinking reconstruction policies and practices.
Project description
The research took place at two levels: one, case study specific research and analysis and comparative research and synthesis and two, fieldwork, data collection, analysis, publication and various forms of dissemination activities.
The CRIC project used case studies to analyse the relationships between cultural heritage, conflict, destruction and reconstruction, to develop an empirically based understanding of the complex links between these elements, to reach comparative insights and to analyse the importance of these relationships to the challenges experienced by post-conflict societies. CRIC examined conflicts in Spain, France, Germany, Bosnia and Cyprus through case studies that represented varied geographic locations, linguistic backgrounds, demographic make-ups, as well as different historical contexts and time depths, thus providing the project with a detailed and contextually varied data set.
Thematic results
The CRIC project made considerable theoretical contribution to our understanding of the varied and complex roles heritage plays in the reconstruction of society after conflict, including its potential negative impacts. Archival research and fieldwork have led to substantial added knowledge and the project has developed a number of important analytical concepts. Through the case studies substantial new knowledge and understanding of specific places and how they came to play important roles in European memory, have been gained. Through comparison significant common characteristics of the processes that unfold through their destruction and reconstruction have been identified. Overviews have been produced according to three different scales of focus: 'Biographies of place' (discussing locations as means and media of changing meanings), 'Memorials and memorialisation' (debating the public capturing of memories and the ways form affects the reiterations of history) and 'Post-conflict landscapes' (focussing on the construction of memory-scapes, subjective landscapes and the seepage of emotion, claims and meanings between spaces and contexts).
Impact and recommendations
Impact arises from the academic importance of the research conducted (including substantial new data sets, conceptual tools and interpretations), its accessibility and how it will encourage further studies and debates. Impact is also gained through wider dissemination activities (such as the website, CRIC youtube channel, iPhone applications and exhibitions). One of the conclusions of the research was that generic policy recommendations on heritage reconstruction after conflict are not necessary helpful and at times extremely counterproductive. To be constructive and to avoid pitfalls any generic policy recommendations must be solidly based on a variety of situations rather than assume universal and common traits. Recommendations must be carefully tailored towards the needs of specific situations and the responsibility of specific heritage bodies. Nonetheless, CRIC recommends that: Heritage should not be used as a means of escalating conflicts; and its potential for playing a part in peace processes, reconciliation and the rebuilding of society in the widest sense should be explored and enhanced.
Conclusion
The results of the CRIC project are many and varied. Collectively they provide an important basis for theorising the role of heritage in post-conflict situations and for critical, forward-orientated thinking about how to design and manage reconstruction efforts after conflict. Dissemination activities have explored various forms and outlets which aim at increasing awareness of the complex role of heritage; many of these activities will be ongoing after the end of the project.
Project context and Objectives:
The CRIC project answered a Seventh Framework Programme (FP7) socioeconomic science and humanities (SSH) call in 2007 for research on 'Histories and identities', specifically the 'articulation of national and European identities'. The project sought to produce results that would have relevance to a number of other areas including contributing to the body of research into 'diversities and commonalities in Europe' (activity area 8.5.2) and 'conflicts, peace and human rights' (activity area 8.4.2). The project also related to and articulates with a number of EC FP7 projects in recent years that make the formation of a European identity their focus. CRIC provides, therefore, an important contribution within the growing constellation of projects investigating the nature and formation of European identities and, through its lens of cultural heritage and the range of disciplinary background of its researchers, the CRIC project brings a unique and original perspective to these debates.
As the European Union (EU) enlarges to include new member-states its constituency continues to diversify. As a consequence of Europe's history, the EU embraces countries that have often found themselves on opposite sides of battle lines in the past as well as countries that have experienced acute internal conflicts. Through the current enlargement of the EU these embedded differences are becoming even more pronounced as the conflicts that have affected many of the new or forthcoming member-states are recent and still part of living memory. This adds considerably to the challenge of developing a common base, an appreciation of belonging that the different groups can all feel a part of. The common reference to 'a shared heritage as a basis for a shared future' has been at the heart of this project, both in terms of problematising the simplicity of such quotes and in terms of developing a more robust and thus useful, understanding of how heritage can be simultaneously shared and particularistic. While misuse of history and the abuse of culture for the purposes of waging war might not be a direct cause of contemporary conflicts, there is no question as to its lasting effect on how societies see themselves and others, transforming collective memory and identity. It is essential to develop an understanding of how the qualities of European cultural heritage mean that it is rooted in different and often discrepant historic narratives. The ability to successfully live with the diversities and commonalities that abide in Europe is dependent on the willingness to understand, appreciate and accept this diversity. This research has endeavoured to give a stronger basis for understanding how a cohesive sense of being European can come to coexist with other identities and how both are rooted in our sense of history and heritage. It is through these important links that the research has been able to investigate how different identities are formed and expressed following damage as a result of conflict at different scales.
In recent years heritage studies has grown significantly in importance and visibility within university courses and within the public sphere. This has been in response to a number of factors ranging from the increased importance of the tourist industry, re-appreciation of the potential of museums and cultural institutions in producing narratives of belonging, in response to changing relations to indigenous people and source communities and in response to the growing appreciation of the significance roles the cultural heritage, in its many forms, plays in the formation of society. This mushrooming in institutions, publications, activities and the emerging of new academic fields of studies raised the need to develop an empirically based theoretical grounding for the field as well as the development of adequate methodologies and analytic frameworks. Within this field, there has been a growing recognition of the important links between heritage and identity as well as awareness of the destructive relationship between conflict and the cultural heritage. These relationships had, however, only been worked on in a fragmentary manner, a fragmentation of the knowledge base that has partly come as a result of the different disciplines that work on related aspects of these interconnected aspects without a bridging intellectual framework. The research of the CRIC project has therefore provided a much needed systematic and comparative data set relevant to these discussions, as well as being a model for how various disciplines can cooperate around these newly emerging intellectual fields of study.
At its broadest level, the project has explored the interrelation between identity, conflict and cultural heritage. Throughout Europe, national and regional identities are in the process of being formed and are influenced by local and regional histories. There are many ways of approaching and studying these relationships; the CRIC project has examined how the cultural heritage, both material and symbolic, is involved. The relationships have been analysed through the particular lens of the destruction and subsequent attempts at regaining the cultural heritage that used to exist. This can be likened to a process of losing and then reacquiring the reference points of one's identity.
The focus of the research project was accordingly twofold:
1. The nature of and intentions behind, the destruction of the cultural heritage was scrutinised with the aim of clarifying, for example, whether we witness different kinds of intentions (their reasons and aims), different levels of destruction (total or partial) and whether the material focal point of such destructions are clearly articulated and selected.
2. The project explored the role of cultural heritage in post-conflict scenarios. For example, is a new fabric of meaning and memory woven into the reconstruction rhetoric and how does this take place? How, by whom and with what intentions are parts of the heritage selected for reconstruction and other parts ignored? And what are the longer-term trajectories of these processes?
The progress of the regional studies, as well as the comparisons, was monitored through the completion of a series of milestones and deliverables which ensured that the project objectives were met. Approaching these questions from a heritage standpoint allowed an in-depth analysis of the dynamics of identity formation in its interrelation with the material world, with attitudes and behaviour as well as with the more intangible symbolic layers of significance that constitute the landscape of identity. While these questions acted as the basis for the development of a comparative understanding of the relationship between heritage, identity and conflict individual regional WPs also sought to illuminate more historically specific questions with the aim of addressing a number of WP objectives as well as contributing to the overarching project objectives.
Project results:
Description of work performed
The work performed has taken place at two levels, namely case study specific research conducted by the WPs and research and planning taking place through the consortium as a research community.
The research of the work packages (WPs) has involved collecting primary data, data analysis, writing and engaging in various forms of dissemination activities.
Data collection: The shared focus of the project on the destruction and reconstruction of specific sites means that substantial archival research has been carried out. This work was conducted during periods one and two with some additional archival research conducted at the start of period three to answer specific questions arising from the feedback received at annual consortium meetings (ACM), recommendations of the steering committee (SC) and in cases where additional sites were added to the WP case studies.
A substantial amount of fieldwork has also been conducted. Once again the majority of this work was carried out in the first two periods of the project with supplementary field visits in the final period. These additional periods of fieldwork have been particularly important in cases where the WPs have been investigating annual commemorative events where repeated visits, year-on-year, have allowed observation of the changes in memorial practices through time. To provide a wider range of case studies suitable for our three overarching thematic topics some additional sites were selected. The fieldwork has been very successful. In particular, it adds a 'grounding' effect to the case studies as the sites investigated are experienced and the nuances of the interplay between sites and their wider environment - physical, social and political but also in more ephemeral ways - are recognised and included in the analyses.
Data analysis and writing: Most of the work of the analysis of data collected and the writing up of the case studies was necessarily done in the final project period, however some analysis was carried out during the collection phases in period two. This manner of working ensured that themes and areas of interest emerging from the data analysis could be shared with the research consortium, comparisons between cases studied drawn out and core issues addressed and investigated through further archive research or fieldwork as required. The sites have been written up in a number of forms. Apart from other publications, most of the case studies contribute to a series of three volumes to be produced by the CRIC project, with case studies being published independently within journals relevant to certain academic disciplines or regions, or receiving individual treatment in specific monographs or regional syntheses.
Dissemination: Academic publications represent the principle form of dissemination and several monographs and peer reviewed journal articles have already been produced. A publication plan has been agreed for the remaining case studies and three collaborative volumes and a special issue journal are forthcoming. Other forms of dissemination produced include exhibitions, documentary films and a series of short films introducing the WP case studies made publicly available on CRIC project Youtube and Vimeo channels. In addition project partners have carried out radio and television interviews and their work has been reported on in numerous press articles. The research has been presented to both academic and non-academic audiences at conferences, workshops and roundtable discussions.
In addition to work carried out at the level of the WP the consortium as a research community provided an important forum which was both intellectually beneficial and challenging to each partner. The consortium acted as a hub for the intellectual and practical work of the project. The management team focussed on ensuring deliverables were met and providing assistance to the regional WPs to ensure that each worked according to its objectives and work plan. ACM and SC meetings (SCM) were an important element in the maintenance of the high academic standards as well as in developing the comparative dimension of the research. All meetings were chaired by the project's principle investigator (PI) Marie Louise Stig Sørensen and guidance was continuously forthcoming in terms of overall aims, standards and theoretical framework for the project - as a whole and in terms of its parts - from the project's academic advisors. Detailed minutes of each meeting were taken and meeting reports were written and circulated amongst the project partners by WP1 administrator Ben Davenport. A major contribution of the project is the production of some of the results within three overarching themes (each to be published as a volume). The themes are 'Biographies of place', 'Memorials and anniversaries' and 'Subjective landscapes'. The volumes each present the project research at a different scale of analysis and in terms of different topoi developed by the project through their collaborative work.
While the general account of the work performed demonstrates the breadth and depth of the research and its obvious comparative value, the activities of the individual WPs best illustrate the manner in which the different historical contexts under investigation and the expertise of the different disciplines brought to bear on the study regions enriched the results and foreground that the project was able to produce.
Thematic summary of results
CRIC has made considerable theoretical contribution to our understanding of the varied and complex roles heritage plays in the reconstruction of society after conflict including its potential negative impact. Archival research and fieldwork have led to substantial added knowledge and the project has developed important analytical concepts. Through the case studies substantial new knowledge and understanding of specific places and how they came to play important roles in European memory, have been gained and through comparison major common characteristics of the processes unfolding through their destruction and reconstruction have been identified.
The final results of the project take three forms:
1. analysis based on specific case studies and resulting comparison and synthesis,
2. core analytical concepts and
3. findings and recommendations.
Analysis based on specific case studies and resulting comparison and synthesis
Archival research and fieldwork have led to substantial added knowledge within a number of academic fields. The research has provided data, documentation and insight into a number of key areas of research. At a finer resolution this includes a better understanding of the destruction and reconstruction of a range of cultural heritage sites in Europe and a detailed tracking of changes in their meaning and societal roles. In addition to knowledge about buildings and monuments the project has added to the understanding of the formation of specific memorial sites and their general as well as specific impacts. This has included providing examples of their important roles in the narration of history and their interaction with memory. The results of the project demonstrate that these sites are the location for major and under acknowledged processes of identity formation and reaffirmation, resulting in the complex links between heritage and identity claims having become better elucidated. CRIC research has added substantially to the understanding of the processes behind the emergence of symbols and iconic places and through the case studies has provided a means of understanding the impacts of different parts of the heritage and the heritage discourse. Finally the use of both the destruction and reconstruction of cultural heritage sites to articulate claims has been traced and their use in politics as a means of punishment, revenge, blame and reparation identified. The results have demonstrated that heritage is not an innocent bystander, but plays a part in conflict and post-conflict rhetoric and actions Through comparison we have identified major common characteristics of the processes involved in the reconstruction of cultural heritage after conflict, such as its adherence to a number of phases which are characterised by distinct concerns and different claims that should be taken into account in future reconstruction efforts. Memorialisation practices emerge in the early phases and act as continuous reminders of the conflict. The partial and conflict-orientated character of most memorials and anniversaries should therefore be recognised and new forms explored. It should also be recognised that civil society and interest groups often play dominant roles in setting the aims of reconstruction; the danger of this is that reconstruction may be hijacked by narrow interest groups which have been created by the conflict itself. The research also shows that ideological objectives are often present within memorialisation practices and they often influence the reconstruction strategies and objectives. The project case studies indicate that critical attention is needed to understand the impact of these objectives regarding both the tangible and intangible heritage. The results also show that heritage reconstruction can have a negative impact on the regeneration of society in some cases, as it may become an example of war 'through other means'. The societal impact of the reconstructions therefore needs to be understood and guided.
Based on the research we have developed several core analytical concepts. These have been explored in detail through project monographs and volumes and include the following:
1. grassroots memorialisation
2. essentialising heritage
3. institutionalisation of heritage
4. distributed memorialscapes.
The project consortium has reached results and recommendations that will be relevant to policy statements. The recommendations will be formulated to address perceived shortcomings in current legislation and guidance on the reconstruction of cultural heritage following conflict. They address how reconstruction initiatives should:
1. avoid practices which allow the reconstruction of cultural heritage to become the focus for the continuation of conflict by another means
2. maintain an emphasis on authenticity without marginalising local populations during the reconstruction process
3. exhibit financial scrutiny of donors and external funding sources to avoid the alienation of groups or development of conflict-full symbolic attachments or creating a sense of exclusive ownership
4. ensure that cultural heritage is disassociated from issues of establishing truth and claims
5. commit to the long term engagement and monitoring of cultural heritage reconstructions projects to ensure greater integration of reconstructed sites with locales and communities
6. make transparent the political and social aims of reconstruction projects and the meanings that are being promoted through the sites.
There are several ways in which the results arising from the research of the CRIC project could be further summarised. The project foreground has been described in detail in the preceding section, so here we select to focus on the thematic foci of the three project volumes, as this is not only a major academic outcome of the project but also a good representation of the synthesis and comparisons that have been drawn from the case studies. The volumes speak to the comparative dimensions and interdisciplinarity of the research produced by the consortium as well as the multiple scales of analysis that it has given rise to. The volumes reflect on three different scales of concerns: 'Biographies of place' (discussing locations as means and media of changing meanings), 'Memorials and anniversaries' (debating the public capturing of memories and the ways form affects the reiterations of history) and 'Subjective landscapes' (focussing on the construction of memory-scapes, subjective landscapes and the seepage of emotion, claims and meanings between spaces and contexts).
Biographies of place
By focussing of the biography of single sites, be they monuments, buildings, cemeteries, or battlefields, the WPs were able to present detailed accounts of the changes that these places undergo through time and to identify common characteristics. A point of comparison is the fate of the physical traces and vestiges of conflict in the context of reconstruction and how they affect the understanding of the reconstructions themselves. The case of Verdun, for instance, reveals the power and agency of the physical traces of war, as well as the reconstructions, in shaping later responses and interpretations. The case studies also reveal and analyse how the materiality of places is worked into claims about perpetrator and victim identities. Such connections between the physical remains and the insistence on identities were consistently found to be an import dimension of the reconstruction - through their physical affects places are called on to act as witnesses to acts of violence and destruction and are used as platforms or foils for peoples, groups or countries claims on and about those events. In addition, the case studies show that the physicality and rootedness of heritage sites are commonly used to testify to the long-standing presence of a group or to provide territorial backing for group identities.
Tracing such individual stories the volume aims at 'thick description' of particular places in order to establish a sound empirical grounding for theoretical interpretations of the relationship between destruction, reconstruction, meanings and identities. Recognising the anthropomorphising tendency inherent in the use of a biographical structure the volume shows how this approach is nonetheless very well suited to reflect on the processes and mechanisms involved. It provides a means of focussing on and thus identifying how mainstream meanings are generated, on how and why subversive alteration and ruptures in the meaning of a site arise and how different factors, intensions and possibilities commingle to give particular places specific meaning, including them becoming iconic places or acting as 'lieux de mémoire'. The concept is also useful in paying attention to the effects of age, to the accruement of meaning and the overflow of former understandings and uses - the baggage of history that is always also a part of the present whether actively explored or suppressed. The biographical approach helps us to incorporate in our analyses the realisation that heritage is never devoid of meaning. The approach thus allowed the project researchers to purposefully and closely track the changing meanings associated with particular places through time. In some instance this could be envisaged as a series of stages, as was the case in changing priorities of meaning at the battlefield of Dybbøl or the change in the types of memory emphasised at Verdun with a move from 'the time of living memory' to 'the time of history'. In other cases associations and understandings of what sites represent are caught up in discourses that are deeply conflicted and show much less a sense of progression through stages, this seems to be the case in both Spain and Cyprus.
The project's concentration on the tangible heritage constituted by the monuments and buildings being studied does not however neglect the intangible aspects of post-conflict heritage but rather argues that such a distinction is largely unhelpful. Through focussing on the physical places the relationships to more ephemeral practices, rituals or traditions are unavoidable drawn into the story and in effect included in the analysis. The analysis, for instance, of access to the battlefield of Dybbøl illuminated the process through which a 'distributed memorial landscape' forms within other spheres such as art, literature and collective memory, when physical access is denied.
Memorials and anniversaries
The study of memorials and anniversary events and practices used a different lens as it focussed on events and activities, thus making the theme of temporality and change central to the analysis. The fluidity of memorial practices is a central theme of several of the case studies and is thoroughly discussed and analysed in this volume. While not a surprising finding, it is an important theme that needs further exploration because it means that contrary to their tendency to appeal to and appear as 'tradition' memorials and anniversaries are inherently unstable cultural forms. At the same time, it is only through analysis of the details of the forms of specific anniversary as they unfold over a period that this instability of the meaning-content can be revealed and the degree to which their associated practices change fully appreciated. A central aspect of the case studies presented is the analysis of how and why their formats change.
To enhance the comparative dimension the individual case studies have used similar analytical structures and shared intellectual aims. For instance, in various ways the case studies use the idea of performances as a frame through which the changes that occur can be analysed in terms of actors, the stage setting, the atmosphere and the rhetoric at memorial events. In addition, core concerns running through the different case studies included questions about how and when does mourning become memorialisation and what influences the format of anniversary events? The time depth represented by the CRIC case studies allowed the project to consider such processes in relation to cases which span from almost 150 years to 15 years in their duration. In addition, investigation of the memorial practices relating to specific events has helped to develop specific analytical concepts or interpretive tropes. The anniversaries linked to the bombing of Gernika and the bombing of Dresden respectively, for example, have allowed the project to develop idea such as the 'explosion of modern myths' through the work of Dacia Viejo Rose and the 'institutionalisation of memory' based on the work of Karl-Siegbert Rehberg.
All the case studies reveal a strong political involvement and the (con)fusion between political strategies (whether group based or that of the state) and mourning is repeatedly observed. In the case of the anniversary of the Srebrenica massacre this is particularly visible and the increased accruement of political overtones onto the mourning of the tragic event can be traced over just a few years. The volume shows how through such mergers between politics and emotions anniversaries and memorials often become rallying points and a focus for claims on reparation or identity or for revenge. The volume identifies claims as a central element of many of the collective expressions of mourning or commemoration. These claims are often backward looking based on needs for recognition of what has taken place, but a particular form of claims take a different format and uses the event for political critique and action. Cristina Sanchez Carretero has developed the concept of 'Grassroots memorials' to identify this form of memorialisation and the elements that constitute these popular expressions of loss and reaction. Memorials, like the other forms of post-conflict heritage investigate by the project, are shown to be used to make statements regarding values. They may have an important healing effect, but can also become involved in competitive memorialisation and become a rallying point for claims and counter-claims. Rather than acting as a point of reconciliation memorialisation, they can be a medium through which hurtful histories can persist, be transmitted, compared or relativised. Through these processes conflict can be exacerbated or continued.
Subjective landscapes
In this volume the project considered the heritage landscape at a scale of analysis through which the relationship between places can be recognised. Several of the case studies deal with landscapes, both urban and rural, their destruction during conflict and subsequent reconstruction. The focus on various kinds of scapes allowed the researchers to investigate both the imaginative and experienced landscapes as well as the physical places; indeed discussing the relationship between these different kinds of landscapes and how they are impacted and formed through the processes of destruction and reconstruction is a main concern of this volume. Through various case studies the project has identified and developed concepts for the analysis of the way that significance or symbolism attached to important places appears to seep or expand to encompass areas, both physically and conceptually, beyond the immediate bounds of a site. This process sees geographically and even chronologically distinct sites and events become associated in a network of symbols and topoi through which collective memory and meanings are formed. The work on heritage landscapes at the same time aims to better define the often uncritically use of terms such as heritage-scape and memory-scape by exploring in detail the relationships between people, places and identity in post-conflict contexts.
Conclusion
Through the CRIC research and fieldwork substantial added knowledge has been produced that provides significant insight into the processes of destruction and reconstruction of cultural heritage and the impact of both of these on the recovery of society after conflict. Through case studies new knowledge and understanding of specific places and how they came to play important roles in European memory, has been reached. The project has investigated 25 case studies ranging in time from the mid-19th century to ongoing conflicts and covering urban and rural heritagescapes. On this basis thorough comparison has been possible and major common characteristics involved in the reconstruction of cultural heritage after conflicts have been identified and their significance analysed. Important theoretical concepts have been developed which will strengthen further research into these processes and relationships. The foundation of recommendations to be tailor made for a number of specific institutions and public bodies has also been formulated. The data, in itself a substantial new archive and the analysis provide an important basis for theorising the relationship between heritage and identity in post-conflict situations and for critical and forward-thinking decisions about how to design and manage reconstruction efforts after conflict.
The project has sought dissemination through academic and non-academic channels to ensure wide academic and societal impact. In addition to monographs and articles the project has communicated very successfully through its website and through its Youtube and Vimeo channels. It has also created a public assessable visual archive and disseminated through exhibitions, maps, iPhone applications and the media.
The project has been extremely successful in creating a trans-disciplinary network of researchers from different parts of Europe, united around a significant intellectually and politically challenging topic. This network will continue to exist into the future due to the strong personal and intellectual links that have been created.
Potential impact:
People throughout the world try to live with the immediate as well as long term effects and scars of conflict and violence, including effects that influence their sense of identity, rights to existence and claims upon the future as their cultural heritage has been destroyed, defamed or taken away from them. Through such destructions their notion of heritage, their feelings of being part of something and belonging somewhere, has become damaged. Issues of importance for the welfare of societies are therefore involved in the processes of destruction and reconstruction of cultural heritage after conflict as they impact on communities' relationship to place and society. Investigating these processes and increasing awareness of their importance therefore have high social impact and implications.
The importance of cultural heritage reconstruction after conflict has been recognised for a long time and international policies, as well as guidelines and established practices, exist. Nonetheless investment in reconstruction often fails in terms of wider cultural objectives and social and political consequences; this is why the results from the CRIC projects are important and have the potential for substantial societal impact. The motivations behind deliberate destruction of cultural heritage remain poorly understood, as are the motivations behind reconstructions and their short as well as long term impacts. It is only by analysing these processes and by drawing comparison between case studies representing different dimensions of these relationships that we can create a platform for further debates about the purposes and consequences of reconstruction and only through such debates and clarity of aims will it be possible to formulate informed recommendations for policymakers, practitioners and various regional actors about why and how parts of the cultural heritage should be reconstructed. The result of the CRIC project show that we need to stress that reconstruction is not merely a matter of design and resources - at stake is the re-visioning of society and the reclaiming of identity! Creating this awareness is in itself a major social impact and our dissemination products will help to build that awareness beyond the life of the project.
Reconstruction and recovery are, in one form or another, a necessary response to destruction and conflict; there are practical as well as social, cultural and psychological reasons for reconstructions and they come with potentially substantial political and financial rewards. The range of official and semi-official bodies involved with the safeguarding of heritage during conflict and with reconstruction afterwards has expanded greatly since the 1950s and the investment, both through human resources and finance, in heritage reconstruction after conflict is vast and politically complex. It is equally clear, however, that reconstruction efforts often have unforeseen, unintended, or even undesirable consequences, as when it leads to competitive claims on heritage or erase former multi-vocal, fluid and socially complex understandings and uses of the heritage. Through detailed case studies and comparison the CRIC project has been able to identify some of the mechanisms that can cause such contestations and claims around reconstructions. It has, for example, identified the close link between, on one hand, memorials and anniversary events and, on the other reconstruction, as extremely complex and often counterproductive as the former present themselves as the focus of claims and easily become instruments of control over (and manipulation of) how events are understood and become part of the public psyche.
The principal CRIC disseminations are academic publications and presentations and the project has a high impact in terms of the amount and the wide ranging academic output it has produced; but these kinds of impacts can only be demonstrated through time. The societal impact arising from the academic importance of the research is in terms of how these will affect the ways these relationships are debated and how they are analysed and interpreted. This impact arises from the synthesis work of CRIC and its unique ability to draw comparisons and from its detailed analysis of case studies and the resulting expansion of our knowledge. An importance impact is also the substantial new data sets, conceptual tools and interpretations that have been produced, as they will encourage further studies and debates within this area, help setting new research agendas and supporting research with empirical data. The societal impact of this aspect of the project takes place within academia and higher education and through that will benefit society at large, although indirectly.
Societal impact arises directly from the research's identification of major common characteristics of the processes involved in the reconstruction of cultural heritage after conflict; these are important both for further academic studies and practice. CRIC has also developed important analytical concepts that will have major impact on future studies of the role of heritage in post-conflict societies.
The wider societal implications of the identification of these characteristic processes and the concepts that can be used in their analysis are clear. Together such insights provide an important basis for theorising the relationship between heritage and identity in post-conflict situations and the tools for critical, imaginative and forward-thinking decisions about how to design and manage reconstruction efforts after conflict.
The societal implications of research into post-conflict heritage are simultaneously obvious and yet subtle and difficult to capture in single statements. The important challenges with regard to recommendations about reconstruction and thus the need to simplify and generalise insight, are well captured in the problems the project encountered when attempting to reach policy recommendations. The heritage field is rich in policies and recommendations and we had originally foreseen that the project results would be able to simply add to these. What we had not foreseen was that some of the problems that arise are in themselves to some extent caused by the rigidity of existing recommendations or and more commonly and with greater perseverance, due to misappropriation and misinterpretation of what the guidelines and policies say. Studying processes almost as they unfold, whether related to the reconstruction of the Mostar Bridge in Bosnia Herzegovina, the construction of memorials for the victims of the Madrid bombing, or the reinstatement of an 1854 war memorial in north Germany in 2011, we learned that conflict and contestation are ever present and that the strong emotive involvement in the events (whether current or in the past) means that reconstruction is a potential minefield of misunderstandings. A major insight of the project of substantial societal impact is therefore that making recommendations about heritage protection and reconstruction during conflict is extremely complex and should be formulated with great care, exploring both bottom-up and top-down perspectives. We conclude that generic policy recommendations on heritage reconstruction after conflict are not necessary helpful and at times extremely counterproductive. To be constructive and to avoid pitfalls any generic policy recommendations must be solidly based on a variety of situations rather than assume universal and common traits.
Rather than formulating specific recommendations the project has therefore formulated one foundation statement and outlined the content of future recommendations to be detailed and tailor-made in dialogue with stakeholders or through identification of their specific weaknesses. Each of these has high and obvious societal impact.
Foundation statement:
It is important that the necessary investment in heritage is efficient and reaches its objectives. Heritage should not be used as a means of escalating conflicts and its potential for playing a part in peace processes, reconciliation and the rebuilding of society in the widest sense should be enhanced.
In addition, CRIC has achieved substantial societal impact through its wide ranging dissemination activities, such as the website, CRIC youtube and Vimeo channels, iPhone application and exhibitions that have aimed at raising awareness more widely about the potentials and problems of heritage reconstruction. Recognising the difference between dissemination and impact, the project has aimed to document the impact in the form of use of its publicly disseminated resources and user statistics for the online websites produced by the project, as well as quotations, comments and feedback. This means that the project has been able to assess its impact both quantitatively and qualitatively. The documentation of usage has focussed on the activities of WP1 and the dissemination it has organised on behalf of the CRIC project. The reasons for this are that regional WPs did not have the administrative support to collect user statistics (for example for the exhibition in Dresden), that WP1 was able to focus on disseminations relevant to all the WPs and that due to the experimental nature of some of the dissemination activities, such as the usefulness of Youtube as a higher education teaching resource, we 'tested' them out through United Kingdom (UK) contacts.
Material produced by the CRIC project has received excellent feedback from educators at Secondary to Postgraduate University level. Films made to introduce aspects of the CRIC research have been taken up and used for presentations and as teaching tools. Comments received by the project as a result of consultation with lecturers, teachers, students and researchers about the usefulness of these films as an academic resource have included phrases about them being fascinating films, a great resource, films that can be used as a teaching aid and to start seminar discussion; one quote suggested "These videos will be more useful than a mountain of reports!". The responses represent an important area of impact for the project.
The impacts of the CRIC project are many and varied. Collectively they provide an important basis for theorising the role of heritage in post-conflict situations and for critical and forward thinking approaches to the design and management of reconstruction efforts after conflict. Overall, the impacts of our activities have been extremely high, although, obviously, the real impact will be felt in years to come as the academic publications begin to affect the discussion and awareness of the significant roles reconstruction have in the recovery of society after conflict, as the wider dissemination materials become increasingly used and as we will be able to work with policy makers in the refinement of existing policies and guidelines.
Main dissemination activities
As predicted in the description of work, dissemination has taken place throughout the lifetime of the project and as outputs has taken different forms; both academic and public engagement. We had anticipated that regional WPs would participate in local events, art projects, museum outreach activities, school visits, community based activities, etc. This has all taken place, but in different ways and to different degrees according to local situations. There has, for instance been substantial engagement with artistic production in the work on both Dresden and Gernika, whereas WP1 has made presentations and used questionnaires in schools and Cyprus has explored the media in a number of ways and arranged several public events. All WPs have participated in local events and all have explored one or more media outlet for outreach.
It was anticipated that we would present data using formats such as digital video disc (DVD), compact disc (CD), digital data and online visual and audio archives. For public dissemination it was decided to replace the production of DVD and CDs with youtube and Vimeo films as these were a more cutting-edge media and, primarily, because this allowed us to reach a much wider audience. The production of an iPhone application was similarly not anticipated at the time when the project was designed but represents a response to new media opportunities that are emerging. An online image catalogues was created, but interview data have not been placed online for ethical reasons. Such data will be screened by the individual researcher and made accessible through their research in an appropriate manner.
The principle dissemination is academic publications and presentations and the project has a high impact in terms of the amount of presentations made during the project. Most WPs have or are in the process of producing a regional project volume synthesising the results of their work. All WPs have at least one major dissemination outcome but in two cases these are not in the form of publication. The major delivered outcome for Dresden is a major exhibition with catalogue (an English translation of the German text being finalised by the end of the reporting period), whereas for Bosnia it is the construction of an important data set. In additions to the single authored volumes, edited volumes, guest editions of journals, papers, databases and catalogues, a series of three shared volumes are being produced. These volumes focus on post-conflict scenarios at three different scales represented by 'Biographies of place', 'Memorials and anniversaries' and 'Subjective landscapes'.
The project website (see http://www.cric.arch.cam.ac.uk online) has acted as the public face of the project. It has been extremely successful with more than 180 695 hits since its launch. It provides links to the other online resources produced by the project. This includes the project photo archive held in the University of Cambridge digital repository Dspace, which is open access and now holds more than 900 images; it has received more than 80 400 hits (see http://www.dspace.cam.ac.uk/handle/1810/214815 online). The website will be made 'static' shortly after the end of the project in order to ensure a maintenance-free web presence beyond the life of the project. Various formats for maintaining the research community post-project and building informal networks on the subject of post-conflict heritage and identity are being discussed. This will utilise different forms of social media and all project members have expressed a strong wish to maintain contact.
In order to reach an extensive audience outside academia Lindy Fleming, a British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) journalist, was employed as a part time communications officer with the management team during the end of the project to help all project researchers to identify and use new dissemination outlets. The resulting disseminations acted as supplements to the individual researcher's own academic and other dissemination activities, which have also been considerably including exhibitions and the development of posters with an iPhone application for several sites in Spain. The challenge was to decide sensible communication priorities in terms of resources (including time and other commitments) and to develop ways of presenting the complex research insights in formats suitable for a wide audience and in a manner that represented the 'spirit' of the project. This meant research outcomes had to be presented in an interesting and stimulating manner, but also in a manner easy to digest and at the same time able to communicate complex points and encourage interest and curiosity about the themes. As part of this dissemination strategy, the following tasks were carried out:
1. identified research outcomes suitable for news and feature articles
2. identified likely media outlets; drew up a diary of opportunities and pitfalls to be avoided
3. briefed researchers on the requirements necessary for effective dissemination
4. identified high profile, low cost dissemination possibilities
5. studied other dissemination efforts to ensure best practice.
Lindy Fleming made extensive and sustained contacts with planning editors and journalists to offer interviews and raise the profile of the research project within newsrooms and feature offices in Europe. Based on her experience and feedback from newsrooms the project decided to utilise links between research results and major cultural-historical events on which project members could offer academic insight and expert views. These have included for instance the activities surrounding the 13 February anniversary in Dresden for which were arranged: a BBC radio interview for Matthias Neutzner with BBC Berlin Correspondent Stephen Evans for BBC radio outlets; a live interview with Matthias Neutzner for the 'Sunday show' Radio4 and BBC television, national news and world service outlets; an interview with Marie Louise Stig Sorensen with BBC Berlin correspondent, Stephen Evans. These interviews were broadcast on 13 and 14 February 2011. Another example was in conjunction with the 12th annual Cambridge heritage seminar 'The heritage of memorials and commemorations' in Cambridge on 15 and 16 April 211 and the Cambridge festival of ideas on 22 October 2011. Research papers and opinion pieces were sent to 'Thinking allowed' and the Cambridge University press office, resulting a several published pieces on these events, (refer to http://www.cam.ac.uk/research/features/how-will-we-remember-them/ as well as to http://www.cam.ac.uk/research/discussion/do-memorials-matter/ online). Marie Louise Stig Sørensen gave an interview on 'The today programme' on BBC radio, a programme with approximately 7.15 million weekly listeners and known to be particularly popular with politicians, policy makers and journalists.
Further press releases were also given. A release concerning memorial heritage in Tuzla, Bosnia Herzegovina, was provided in May 2011 with the result that research by Ioannis Armakolas appeared as a front page article on Transconflict (see http://www.transconflict.com online) on 10 June 2011 and saw the beginning of ongoing cooperation with editor and Guardian contributor Ian Bancroft. On 6 August a four-page spread on Ioannis Armakolas' research in Tuzla and the CRIC project appeared in the prestigious Bosnian paper Oslobodjenje. In addition WP6 project leader Dzenan Sahovic is regularly consulted by journalist for comment on developments in Bosnia Herzegovina and the events in the region. Researchers from Dresden and Cyprus are similarly regularly used by their local and national press.
Another example is the coverage of the return of the Isted Lion monument to Germany in September 2011, a case study investigated by WP1, two press releases on the Isted Lion monument were written by Marie Louise Stig Sørensen. An opinion pieces by Dr Sørensen appeared on the websites Euractiv (see http://www.euractiv.com/culture/returning-disputed-war-monuments-heritage-reinterpreted-analysis-507471 online) and Transconflict (refer to http://www.transconflict.com/2011/09/returning-disputed-war-monuments-269/ online). Numerous other interviews and articles were published relating to the CRIC project research and project members' opinions are regularly sought on the issue of post-conflict heritage. A fuller list of press coverage has been provided online on the research and innovation participant portal under project 'dissemination activities'.
In support of dissemination activities the following activities were offered to researchers and followed up by many of the WPs:
1. links established with a variety of organisations including Cambridge University press office and community affairs office to enable researchers to make use of a range of dissemination resources
2. youtube and Vimeo channels set up with 17 films commissioned and uploaded
3. visiting communications expert Prof. Helen Weinstein was consulted to gain a variety of views on best practice. She also conducted a briefing session with researchers.
4. EU portals contacted and used
5. direct public engagement undertaken through a CRIC events at the festival of ideas
6. support offered by WP1 for the many individual and group dissemination efforts carried out by researchers themselves. This included advice on press releases, editorial support, feature ideas, press contacts and liaison with editors and journalists.
7. e-marketing strategies used to promote awareness of research film channels.
A major dissemination activity was the development of youtube and Vimeo channels aimed at communicating widely and beyond academic circles. During periods one and two the CRIC research project established documentary strands within the WPs working in Cyprus, Dresden and Madrid. It was decided to build on these resources and skills to further non-academic dissemination and to both utilise and present the striking visual aspects of many of the case studies. Establishing a channel on youtube became a priority to provide an attractive, time efficient and controlled dissemination outlet that could be used to convey complex research ideas in a format that was easily understood. To be effective the channel would need to be 'active' with regular uploads not only to reflect as much of the work as possible but to ensure there would be impact through continuing traffic on the site. Throughout all activities it was a paramount concern that the research outcomes were not compromised. The aims were:
1. to produce a series of low cost films to give a general audience an overview of CRIC research and to make introductions to several of the case studies
2. to provide media material that could be used as an additional teaching tool for use in European schools and universities
3. to provide a post-project dissemination outlet.
The distribution of the links to the youtube was a major challenge for the researchers pushing us well beyond our comfort zone. We made use of the following methods:
1. sustained e-marketing was used to reach a wide audience
2. postcards with the web addresses were produced for distribution at conferences
3. all researchers encouraged to embed videos on relevant webpages
4. links added to comments on webpages and social media sites such as Facebook and Reddit (see http://www.reddit.com/user/CRICResearch/ online).
Emails were also sent to organisations related to heritage research including University history and archaeology departments, history curriculum advisers, EU officers and institutions, cultural heritage organisations, newspaper and broadcasting planning desks, University of Cambridge press office, other FP7 projects and contacts at United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO).
This resulted in 17 films uploaded to youtube and 10 films uploaded to Vimeo, including a 24 minute Dresden presentation. Films were embedded on the CRIC website and other high traffic and relevant websites and are now picked up by widely used search engines e.g. Google, Bing and Interceder, giving high viewing figures in United States of America (USA) as well as in Europe. It has been confirmed that the films will be use as a teaching resource in universities by a number of academic teaching staff. One of the highlights of the feedback was received from the historical association, which has a vast membership among history teachers and is very active in steering them to resources. The association has agreed to put links to the CRIC research website, youtube and Vimeo channels on their website (see http://www.history.org.uk/resources/secondary_resource_5267.html online).
As an example of other dissemination activities and how the CRIC project tried to experiment with and learn from different formats, is the CRIC organised public workshop at the University of Cambridge festival of ideas. The workshop was on the complex theme of memorials and asked 'Do memorials matter?' It presented results of our research as part of the event which took place on 22 October 2011. The aims were to attempt to:
1. engage directly with the public and see whether such workshops can be used as a forum for discussion of topics the public rarely is consulted on (and to learn from that experience)
2. highlight a number of CRIC case studies
3. use the event as an opportunity to gather data on local community opinion on memorial events through questionnaires attached to memory boxes
4. build contacts with local history and heritage groups.
More than 300 people took part in the CRIC festival of ideas event in different ways over a period of two weeks in answering questionnaires, taking part in discussions at the workshop and attending talks. Ages involved ranged from 12 to 91 years; more than a quarter were teenagers. Briefings at the venues where memory box were placed, including two sixth-form college classes, one lunch club and two homes for the elderly. Fifteen history groups, veterans associations and heritage groups were contacted and invited to attend and visits were made and information given out at cafes, the city central library, a doctors surgery and offices via student email system to encourage wide response to questionnaires and a good attendance at the workshop itself. In total 260 questionnaire responses have been collated and processed for further research use. Information on the CRIC research project appeared in the festival program and on University websites publicising the festival. History magazines received information on the project and this acted to increase its profile among specialist writers.
The aims of the event were to reach a large group and provide a public forum through which the project could help promote a greater public understanding of European heritage issues and reconstruction projects that are funded through international aid. This was largely achieved, with several additional outcomes being that researchers learning about outreach activities, a new heritage resource was provided for the local community in the form of a Cambridge memorial map devised and distributed by Ben Davenport (WP1). The map, which locates different types of memorials around Cambridge, was produced by the CRIC project management team and this data was requested by senior archaeologist Sally Croft from Cambridgeshire Historic Environment Record to update local heritage records and for use in their public engagement exercises. Based on filming carried out to document the event two films made, including 24-minute research presentation on Dresden. These films are available to view on the project youtube and Vimeo channels.
Post project dissemination
Beyond the end date of the project CRIC members continue to promote their results through the many forms of dissemination discussed. WP7 particularly has played a very active role in discussions and analysis of the events of the recent anniversary of the bombing of Dresden on 13 February 2012 within the media. Carsten Paludan-Muller has organising a meeting with the World Bank on post-conflict heritage in Oslo in April 2012, with Marie Louise Stig Sørensen participating as a heritage expert. Appendix D provides a list of some of the dissemination activities performed by the project WPs in the months following the end of the project. It is anticipated that this media interest in the CRIC research will continue as the contacts made and preparation work done by Lindy Fleming and the project partners comes to fruition and the profile of the project continues to develop. The static website, the DSpace image repository and the CRIC youtube and Vimeo channels are disseminations that will continue after the end of the project.
Dissemination activities summary
The project encouraged original, varied and adaptable dissemination methods to make sure the research work was noticed by a variety of audiences. Much more than originally anticipated was achieved and new ways of disseminating results were explored. A wide audience was reach and the impact of dissemination has been measurable in terms of quantitative and qualitative data. The CRIC dissemination activities explored a variety of forms and outlets in order to have an increased impact and increase general awareness of the complex role of heritage; many of these activities will be ongoing after the end of the project.
List of websites:
Public website address: http://www.cric.arch.cam.ac.uk
Dspace: http://www.dspace.cam.ac.uk/handle/1810/214815
Youtube: http://www.youtube.com/user/CRICResearchProject
