ANNA WOODHAM, KING’S COLLEGE LONDON &

SARA PENRHYN JONES, BATH SPA UNIVERSITY

Troubled Waters: How should heritage organisations communicate climate change?

TROUBLED WATERS, STORMY FUTURES: HERITAGE IN TIMES OF ACCELERATED CLIMATE CHANGE

Partners: •  National Trust •  National Library of Wales •  Coleg Cymraeg •  Cornish Audio Visual Archive •  University of Exeter •  Kings College London •  Monash/ Bath Spa University

Funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council UK

Prof. Kate Rigby

Sara Penrhyn Jones

Advisory Group/Mentors: •  Professor Mike Pearson –

Aberystwyth University •  Dr Michael Jarvis – University of

Wales •  Dr Caitlin DeSilvey – University of

Exeter •  Dr Rodney Harrison – University

College London •  Dr Chris Callow – University of

Birmingham

Dr Anna Woodham

Dr Bryony Onciul

PROJECT RESEARCH QUESTIONS:

•  What are concrete and abstract effects of accelerated climate change on communities?

•  How do different communities respond to the prospect of climate change? What are the challenges of accepting change?

•  In what ways are heritage organisations, local and national, changing their policies and stances on the protection of heritage? How is this articulated?

Case studies in: •  Durgan Village

(Cornwall) •  Porthdinllaen (N. Wales) •  Kiribati

AND Interviews with 15 heritage organisations, UK

CASE STUDIES & INTERVIEWS

https://vimeo.com/199817541 (5.21)

TROUBLED WATERS FILM

PROJECT RESEARCH QUESTIONS:

•  What are concrete and abstract effects of accelerated climate change on communities?

•  How do different communities respond to the prospect of climate change? What are the challenges of accepting change?

•  In what ways are heritage organisations, local and national, changing their policies and stances on the protection of heritage? How is this articulated?

RESPONSES TO CLIMATE CHANGE: UK HERITAGE SECTOR

Organisation Number

Advisory and Statutory Bodies 4

Organisations with a national or regional focus e.g. The National Trust

4

Museums 3

World Heritage Sites 4

“I remember somebody saying to me once that we shouldn’t be covering things like climate change or extinction and I said, it’s a little bit like having a geography course and not covering seas and mountains. It’s a part of the story.” (TW09)

ORGANISATIONAL RESPONSIBILITY

“I think it’s actually quite important on the climate change front…we have a very unique position as an organisaton in the country, we are not a company, we are not a social enterprise, we are not public sector...We are exempt from a whole range of regulation...So, in terms of climate change, we actually have to...introduce this from the point of view of values...So our great trump card, if you like, is the values thing.” (TW13)

ORGANISATIONAL VALUES

“the coast does tend to feel like a fixed line between the sea and the land…but I think…the coast is actually dynamic and we've just fooled ourselves that it's static.” (TW02)

FROM MITIGATION TO ADAPTATION “I see the emphasis kind of shifted a bit, because when I first started the job, we were doing so much…on the mitigation stuff, and the adaptation stuff has taken us till, relatively recently to get to the point where we can shift focus slightly and really start engaging with the impacts and adaptation stuff” (TW11)

“The organization is going along as business as usual. Very aware that there is something coming down the tracks but actually, it’s too difficult.” (TW02)

A CHALLENGING ISSUE

“…communicating is a central part of this whole process, all of these issues are about managing expectations and ensuring our reputation isn’t harmed and its being transparent in our decision making processes and run an efficient self-critical organisation that has a constructive approach to risk. That is what this is about and communication is essential, whether internal external from the sector to the public, whatever....” (TW12)

ORGANISATIONAL REPUTATION AND COMMS

‘LOOSING’ HERITAGE – A MORE PRAGMATIC APPROACH

“…should we be looking in advance and preparing discussions and guidance and positive ways of dealing with loss. So for instance, you know that a...monument is going to fall into [the sea]...instead of being so precious about it...let people use them, for experiments,...whatever, film sets...art installations?

But there is an awful lot that you can do that would not be acceptable in a very traditional approach to these things...We need to start that conversation, and we need to actually acknowledge it, I think, we need, either a statement or a document that says we acknowledge that loss is happening.”

WWW.CORDDIRDYFROEDD.ORG

Sara Penrhyn Jones Bath Spa University s.jones3@bathspa.ac.uk @saraPjones

Anna Woodham King’s College London anna.woodham@kcl.ac.uk @annawoodham1