The UAB to collaborate in preserving the cultural heritage of the Vall d'en Bas

Projecte de La Vall d'en Bas amb la UAB — Foto: Ajuntament de La Vall d'en Bas

The UAB Department of Social and Cultural Anthropology, through the CORE in Cultural Heritage, will participate in the project entitled "Cultural Sustainability in the Vall d'en Bas". The project will serve as a pilot programme in Catalonia to integrate different heritage areas with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals.

03/05/2019

The local communities and their cultural practices are currently under pressure thanks to the forces of globalisation. A set of international agreements aim to respond to this situation, such as the United Nations' 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, which includes a clear call to reinforcing actions to help preserve and safeguard cultural heritage in an effort to create sustainable cities and communities.

Following the strategy established a few years ago, the municipality of La Vall d’en Bas has now initiated a cultural sustainability project with the support of the Smithsonian Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage, the General Direction of Popular and Traditional Culture of the Department of Culture of the Catalan Government, and the Catalan Heritage Research Institute of Girona and the Department of Social and Cultural Anthropology and the UAB CORE in Cultural Heritage.

Among the project's objectives are the creation of an inventory of the region's intangible cultural heritage assets; the study of intersections of natural, constructed and intangible heritage; the creation of a cultural plan and exchanges of cultural knowledge and practices.

The project will serve as a pilot programme in Catalonia to integrate different heritage areas with the aim of contributing to advancing in the United Nations' Sustainable Development Goals.

Cultural Mapping

The project includes a first phase of cultural mapping, with fieldwork consisting in monitoring 1,400 households with the aim of documenting aspects related to the population, associations, areas, events, rituals and objects. The results will be incorporated into an inventory of the region, as well as aid in the second phase of in-depth interviews with a selection of inhabitants.

The first phase of the project, which will take place in June and July, will include the participation of four students of Social and Cultural Anthropology from the UAB and the University of Girona. “We wanted the project to have an educational perspective as well, so that the students participating could acquire and improve their capacities in cultural mapping and interviews, using digital tools to document live cultural expressions, discover the institutional processes in creating inventories of intangible cultural heritage assets and cultivating intense teamwork skills”, explains Montserrat Ventura, Director of the Department of Social and Cultural Anthropology.

The support of the UAB to the project launched by La Vall d'en Bas and the Government of Catalonia forms part of the efforts of the CORE in Cultural Heritage to bring research into heritage closer to society, and more specifically the research conducted by the department's Network of Interest in Ethnological Heritage (XIPE).