Info-grafic produced by the Lead Partner Coordination Team
The INT-HERIT project started in September 2017 in the lead city of Baena (Spain). Our trainings were held in Paris (France). The first training took place during the initial month of the project, but we also received two other training sessions in February and October 2018.
The first transnational meeting took place in Armargh (Northern Ireland) in November 2017. Most transnational meetings were celebrated in 2018. The second transnational meeting took place in the Kortrijk region (Belgium); the third in Alba Iulia (Romania); the fourth in Espinho (Portugal); the fifth in Sigulda (Latvia); and the sixth in Dodoni (Greece). Finally, two other meetings were held in 2019: one in Cahors (France) and one in Mantova (Italy), which became the last conference and marked the end of the project.
Throughout the project, we had the privilege of attending two URBACT City Festivals: one held in October 2017 in the city of Tallinn (Estonia) and the other held in September 2018 in Lisbon (Portugal).
The Local group have had a different number of meetings where they had the possibility to discuss about heritage management at local level. This video explains the different views for the Castle.
Torreparedones is an Ibero-Roman city that currently occupies more than 10 hectares in the municipality of Baena and, in less extension, the municipality of Castro del Río. In the last fifteen years, the City Council of Baena has bought the area of the site that is currently included in the Archaeological Park from its previous private owners. At the same time, the Council has also led, in collaboration with other institutional actors, a successful process of research, conservation and enhancement not exempt from challenges regarding these objectives and in general to the management mechanisms. The recent discovery by researchers of the University of Cordoba of a Roman amphitheatre has promoted further research and excavation works where public-private-social cooperation has proved to be successful and can so be a reference for future stable mechanisms of shared management by a wide network of stakeholders.
INT-HERIT
is a network of cities that share and learn together in the
implementation scenario of their cultural heritage management
strategies. A type of methodology poorly known and tested for the
first time by the URBACT Programme. Both for URBACT and for the other
actors involved (cities, experts, interested parties…) it was an
unknown landscape. What has happened along the way, what lessons are
drawn from the INT-HERIT network, especially from the eyes of a
navigator placed in the internal team of the Leading Partner of the
Consortium? A journey in several steps from handwritten notes in the
travel notebook…
Step
1
Observe,
monitor, analyse, evaluate, capture
knowledge from the process of implementation of the plans. This is
not a common practice of either the
promoter of the plans, or those other external organisations
financing them.
Typically,
controls have focused on the administrative performance, not
considering, in general, the opportunity to
put in place a knowledge capturing and learning system or
device. The task is, as a rule, of a controlling nature and designed
to guarantee a good administrative praxis, but the potential to wear
a different hat and sleuth for the gossip and rumours of the
operational framework, the “small print” of the process
and, in general, to initiate an exhaustive scan of the implementation
metabolism of the plan is just forgotten. A banquet to be served by
lawyers and accountants, but there are not many systems analysts,
pedagogues or philosophers in its preparation, to name just some
professions who love the method.
In
this sense, the internal work dynamics
themselves, within the experimental implementation networks
promoted by URBACT, have been cooked
over low heat. From the beginning, the landscape of the
implementation was defined around the margins of the road where
challenges, both mandatory and optional, are often waiting for those
travelling implementation. There is no doubt that they were good
landmarks too. Implementation voyagers can easily return to them if
they get lost, to find them turned into transversal axes of
knowledge, articulators of observation and reflective analysis,
carved menhirs to guide pilgrims.
Once
the path was marked, the cities within these networks needed an
operating system. Different experts and stakeholders were called to
design the internal mechanism, a necessarily slow process of
construction and deconstruction of the parts, as if it were a Meccano
set, until they came up with the precise organs that would eventually
set up the Operational Implementation Framework.
But
let us leave the method in peace and return to the cities and their
plans.
Step
2
The
plans or strategies are the starting point of the implementation race
for the cities of the INT-HERIT network. Let us look back on the
itinerary followed for the past two years and take some comments from
our logbook:
The plan
Is
it a plan when we talk about small cities and competencies that are
not underlined as core municipal tasks such as heritage management?
In many cases, they are unevenly connected and interconnected
actions, given
the high external dependence of these small local authorities in
order to secure stable investment in objectives that go beyond their
basic responsibilities. Between this apparent improvisation and the
lack of a plan, reality forces us to be aware
of the opportunities that external financing presents, as an
interviewed mayor pointed out.
This
being the case, the investment deficit is closely associated with the
management deficit in all its components. Only municipal political
commitment to safeguarding the hallmark of local heritage and, in
short, to meeting human needs explains the cities engagement with
cultural goods and hence with their citizens’ heart and soul. Pure
European DNA.
In
any case, with a more or less formal plan established, could
you tell what are the expected results? What vision awaits at the end
of the road, what scenario? Questions to strengthen the progress and
prepare the trip, in sum.
The environment
Comme
ci comme ça, the perception
changes daily. The political and social framework surrounding
heritage management in small municipalities can be seen as an
impossible challenge or a commitment that cannot be postponed.
Centralised management of heritage assets still carries great weight
in a large number of European States. Even in those countries where
the balance of powers allows for municipal intervention on
municipally-owned assets, small cities are in general left to their
own devices. There, vertical integration is not the prominent
feature, save in exceptional cases, where the extraordinary quality
of the assets or a skilled local management triggers this process.
Neither is cultural tourism the magic solution, nor the manna that
will heal the infirm municipal coffers when the offer spreads from
all corners of the continent, the available resources are scarce, and
consumers do not always choose this kind of tourism, even though
statistics indicate global increases. In smaller municipalities,
quite often this income is a bird of passage, unable to provide
economic sustainability to the management of cultural goods.
In
summary, a bird’s-eye view does not seem to give vital clues or
magical solutions to guide implementation, clearing up the doubts to
come. Is it better to take the risk and make progress in the
management of an archaeological site or let this opportunity sleep
the sleep of the just?
The operational framework
It
is no coincidence that this point is at the heart of our journal. And
what a pity that so very little attention is paid to the daily
practice of municipal management. What little interest and what a lot
of knowledge flowing into the waste stream.
If
we emphasize the importance of the operational framework, it is
because this is where we can appreciate the details of the small
things. Here each piece, regardless of its size, is called to provide
high-quality system performance or dangerously lead to failure.
Human
and social values, behavioural patterns that should not be alien
to management practices join the journey at this point on the road.
Caution when it comes to undertaking
certain investments or the regulated and scalable nature thereof,
gains importance when weighing
decisions. Anchoring socially and politically the steps to be taken,
when talking about common heritage, is another applauded
recommendation. The code for good implementers
also includes a fair assessment of the surrounding constraints, and
testing prototypes and pilot actions before drawing
a highway to heaven.
Everything is easier if done in good company,
surrounded by professional teams with the know how to eventually
cross the T’s and dot the I’s. It is essential to have the will, the
effort and the commitment, they are the necessary fuel for the
operational machinery to ascend when the road becomes steep. And
if we have to change tack, we do. The important thing is that
each long journey always begins with a first step and
the path is made by walking. Learning from that is like the
philosopher’s stone of implementation. A gem not always sought after.
Monitoring and tracking
As
a result of the above mentioned circumstances, passengers find
themselves playing a board game. The game of Implementation. That is
what our wager is called and it casts us inescapably, like Alice in
her Wonderland, into a bottomless abyss, a sinister black hole.
And
it is not that we were not warned. Without indicators, data
collection, gait recorders, risk analysts and evaluators of the
implementation, falls can be resounding and so it happens too often.
Some
common sense would not hurt. Huge
excuses have been heard when again and again we have talked about
this challenge with INT-HERIT stakeholders in nine European
countries. Regardless of the magnitude of the investments, the
quality and the formality of the management plans, the typology and
character of their patrimonial assets, here is the feature common to
all cities that, believe it, almost without exception proves the
rule.
We
refer to common sense because it shares this socialising feature with
heritage and human beings. It is assumed that it accompanies us as
human beings and, by extension, those goods that are, or should be,
part of the common weal. It does not seem difficult to send, as a
standard practice, information and data trackers, place some probes
to capture impacts, take advantage of internal and external
information nodes on the side of the simplest of roads. And yet, how
passive the listening, almost deafness conducting this piece
of the implemented concert.
Even
at Programme level, it has been very difficult to glean some example
cases, some stories showing effective solutions related to this
monitoring hunger, as paradoxical as it is ignorant in the full bloom
of big data. Recognition of our
unenlightenment?
The performance
In
this travel notebook the moment of execution motivates an
anticipation movement. If, at the point of departure, the eye was
invited to look in the distance at the implementation results, to
specify them, once the gear unit is started up to execute the
actions, the attention should not be distracted from the uses and
users that results must reach and benefit.
Keep
uses and users not only in mind but also,
physically, in the space of the intervention. This is an advantageous
warning for all seafarers that can prevent errors or imbalances in
the final result.
This
way, the risk of seeing infrastructures or facilities closed or
implementation spaces that live in the limbo of broken dreams can be
planned ahead, avoiding situations in which there is no backward step
to take and no public way to follow. If the uses and users were
at the control room from the starting line in this implementation
trip, it would probably not be necessary to come to the rescue of any
implementer arrested in the ‘in jail” square of the board, always
eager to satisfy its hunger.
Lessons learnt
Slightly
changing the indolent practice described at the beginning of this
notebook, things should go better as regards knowledge management,
namely also implementation management.
The
road widens once saved the initial uneven part, and the gains can
illustrate the decision making of all stakeholders involved in the
game: political representatives, professional teams, interested
parties, private entities, citizens and organised society.
The final stage in a long tour
Under
the asphalt, there are people, organised groups and
participatory governance. Under the pavement, as a deep yearning that
underlies the flagstones of the implementation road to any plan, the
participatory method ready to be endorsed and finally come to the
surface to stay. Praised its necessity, nothing remains but to deepen
the practice. Let the implementation process not be shipwrecked once
offshore. This requires a method adapted to the changing and
executive circumstances that govern it.
At
the end and the beginning, in the absence of rigid plans, may at
least come flexible, operational and monitored dynamics of
implementation. Any port in a storm in
the turbulent implementation
scenario.
Article co-produced by Antonio Zafra Romero and Raquel Moreno Vicente
On the 9th of May 2018 the public body “Associazione Centro Internazionale d’Arte e di Cultura di Palazzo Te” has become a private foundation, “Fondazione Palazzo Te”. Through this change a public private partnership was de facto established between the Municipality, owning the palace, and the foundation managing it. Thanks to this governance shift, the management of the pole will become more sustainable for the Municipality. The palace at the moment is undergoing some important restoration work, that will make it more welcoming to visitors and at the same time give new functions to some of the areas, that will be opened to the public for free, or have new business-related activities and host new cultural exhibitions and activities.
The city of Sigulda (LV) has created an excellent multi-purpose space in the Sigulda Castle Complex.
In these video, we can listen to the experience of different merchants, such as Elizabete (with a ceramic workshop), Marina (producing leather artist), Antra (with a walking stick workshop) and Zinaida (with a paper art workshop). Everyone is grateful that this project has allowed merchants to produce and sell their products in their place of residence. Local residents and tourists appreciate their products and permit them to live at home in a comfortable way.
The city of Alba Iulia is one of the most important urban centres of Romania, a place of monumental historical significance with monumental gems, such as the Apulum Roman camp, the Transilvania Princely Palace, the Catholic Cathedral, the Orthodox Cathedral, the Batthyaneum Library, the Museikon, the National Union Museums and the Union Hall in which the Romanian Nation was declared.
The INT-HERIT network organized a meeting in Alba Iulia with the partner cities involved in the URBACT III Project in order to analyze the effectiveness of the implementation of a cultural heritage strategy.
In this video, we can listen to the experiences of Carmen Preja (National Centre for Information and Tourism Promotion), Ciprian Dobra (Principia Museum) and Liviu Stanciu (ULG Member, Communication and PR Manager), talking about the importance of restoration and a marketing plan in order to increase the number of tourists and cash-flow in the city.
Int-Herit is a project that came to help the process of Espinho City Hall’s urban rehabilitation (Portugal), focusing on two fundamental projects:
the recovery of the Castro de Ovil, which was in ruins.
the intervention of RECAFE (The Re-qualification of the Espinho Railroad Canal) at the centre of the City, crossing all the city through the centre.
In the video, we can listen to the opinions of different stakeholders, such as Vicente Pinto (the Vice-Mayor Espinho Municipality), Joao Castelo (an arquitect), Alexandre Santos (the Director of Espinho Music Academy), José Pinho (a tradesman), Joaquim Meneses (a tradesman), José Luis (a restaurant manager), Isabel Tavares (who has historic store), and Filipe Pereira (a hotel manager).
All the people interviewed have great expectations and enthusiasm for the project. They feel development will improve commerce and bring more visitors. They emphasise the idea that the community as a whole must be integrated into these projects to succeed.
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