DEPARTMENT FOR BUSINESS, ENERGY & INDUSTRIAL STRATEGY

NEWTON: Plural Heritages of Istanbul's World Heritage Sites: the case of Land Walls

Project disclaimer

Disclaimer: The data for this page has been produced from IATI data published by DEPARTMENT FOR BUSINESS, ENERGY & INDUSTRIAL STRATEGY. Please contact them (Show Email Address) if you have any questions about their data.

Description

The project will develop new valorisations of the Istanbul Land (Theodosian) Walls, working with communities to: 1) inform heritage planning through 'bottom-up' perspectives; 2) relate the Walls to intangible cultural heritages; 3) co-produce both situated and web-based, public-facing digital heritage interpretation resources that reflect non-official, hitherto unauthorised understandings of the Walls and their environs; and 4) build capacity through modelling heritage management/interpretation practice, digital technologies and community engagement within the heritage sector. The Walls are an extensive part of a UNESCO World Heritage Site. They are an ancient structure, much modified in history, famously breached in the 1453 Conquest of Constantinople and now situated in a rapidly modernizing megacity. They have witnessed intercultural contact and conflict, from war to 'gentrification', sometimes involving involuntary displacements of communities. The Walls are officially valorized as tangible heritage, and the UNESCO statement of Outstanding Universal Value is based upon the 'unique integration of architectural masterpieces that reflect the meeting of Europe and Asia over many centuries'. This has shortcomings related to scant engagement with, and involvement of, diverse stakeholder communities, and we contend that the Walls are not well valorized by people who live in their vicinity, and are not meaningfully integrated into such people's lives as heritage. To counter this, we will research and develop multi-perspectival narratives revalorizing the Walls in relation to different identities, experiences and attitudes to the past, proposing models for in-country urban heritage management/interpretation. This involves three interrelated uses of qualitative research into the lives, attitudes and understandings of heritage of community stakeholders: 1) to inform more responsive, 'bottom-up' heritage management; 2) to engage stakeholders as co-producers of public-facing heritage interpretation, in particular to produce in situ and online digital resources that valorize and present multiple stories; and 3) to rethink the Walls beyond the paradigm of tangible heritage, based on people's 'sense of place'. The research is structured in interconnected work packages to achieve this and we adopt a multi-modal qualitative research methodology including both surveying (e.g. semi-structured interviews and focus groups, walking ethnographies); and co-production of heritage resources (e.g. digital stories accessible online or remotely through QR codes), which functions both as resource development and as a form of reflexive enquiry into people's identities and attitudes to heritage. One key concern is the need to reconceptualise the Walls as 'heritage' not merely as a physical part of the historic built environment, but as part of the story of people's lives and as one locus of people's complex relations with the past. This aligns with recent appeals for alternative perspectives on the past: with the notion that there exist multiple, rather than singular, 'heritages' - even when constellated in one place; and that the 'ordinary' stories of people's lives may have as much to tell us as official representations of national history. A second key concern is the need to introduce more sophisticated heritage community engagement practices, including co-production, not just to ensure the social value of the Walls, but also to share the benefits to society and to heritage interpretation that such approaches have produced in other countries, notably in the PI's AHRC-funded work in the UK. As part of this, the project provides Official Development Assistance (ODA) through: enabling cultural development and sector 'upskilling' through community interpretation training toolkits (CITTs); 'consolidating cultural heritage'; and supporting heritage tourism as a 'key economic sector'.

Objectives

The Newton Fund builds research and innovation partnerships with developing countries across the world to promote the economic development and social welfare of the partner countries.

---

Location

The country, countries or regions that benefit from this Programme.

Turkey

Disclaimer: Country borders do not necessarily reflect the UK Government's official position.