Perception, Representation, Preservation and Usage of the Cultural and Natural Heritage from a Historical Perspective: the Transformation from the Late Soviet to the Post-Soviet and Modern times

The project is realized under the HSE Fundamental Research Program.
Period: February - December 2018

Aim

• At this stage, special attention will be paid to the study of perception of the heritage and the forms of its representation, about the ratio of the preservation and use of different types of historical, cultural and natural heritage in the process of various economic and cultural activities. The chronological framework of the project covers the period of the end of the 1980s - 2010s.

Main tasks

• Collect information on the decision-making process of various actors in the restoration and museumification of the cultural and natural heritage of various types.
• Identify the relationship between the ideas of these actors about the past of the heritage object as the main subject of public interest and their management strategies.
• Put this information in an international context, including in the framework of UNESCO's activities, thus revealing the specific features of the late, post-Soviet and modern approach to museification and the use of historical and natural heritage.

The project consists of a number of subprojects, united by a common idea and approaches. After the launch of the pilot project in 2017, we plan a slight narrowing of the set of studied cases with a corresponding deepening of their analysis. Heterogeneous objects and materials selected for research will be studied within a single field of concepts, methods and research questions. 

Conceptual frame

In this project we will continue to use the methodology of studying historical memory, historical work with heritage, both tangible and intangible, representing traditional technological, industrial and cultural practices, including working with archival textual sources, visual materials, modern heritage representation materials in literature and media. At the new stage of research, oral history methods, such as interviewing the actors involved in the management of heritage sites, will play an important role. The purpose of the interview will be to obtain materials for further comparisons. To this end, the interviews will be structured along a single plan with sections that allow you to define the informant’s perceptions about the heritage site he controls as a basis for historical narratives, visitors as heritage consumers, their needs and interests, the process of choosing strategies for working with heritage, and the consequences (economic social, cultural) decisions in this area. The analysis of materials from books of reviews of museums, which are a valuable but difficult source for studying the view of the “consumer” audience on the concept and presentation of historical, cultural and natural heritage offered by it, will also be new. Based on the received text array, a comparative content analysis of the content of materials will be conducted.