Cultural heritage, cohesion policies and well-being: a virtuous circle - 13WS21448

This workshop aims to discuss the contribution of cultural heritage to fostering societal well-being and local development, drawing on the rich experience of the HERIWELL Consortium and ESPON EGTC, URBASOFIA, Europa Nostra, Eurocities, KEA European Affairs SPRL and the European Regions Research and Innovation Network. 

The session will address the challenge of aligning policies across European cultural heritage territories based on a shared vision and the common use of resources, in order to contribute to territorial development and to foster societal well-being. It will highlight the need to promote cultural heritage values as catalysts for societal well-being, as well as to open up an opportunity for territorial competitiveness and sustainable growth in EU territories. This will be demonstrated and analysed via real-life, specific examples.

The session will also focus on the contribution of EU funds to unlocking the potential of cultural heritage for territorial development and in ensuring the sustainability of the results of related projects after their implementation.

The guiding questions are: 

• What role does cultural heritage play in framing societal well-being, sustainable growth and territorial competitiveness? 
• How can EU cohesion policy and other policies enhance the potential of cultural heritage in the above-mentioned fields? 
• What evidence do we have of the contribution of cultural heritage in these areas?
• How can cultural heritage stakeholders be mobilised to maximise such contributions?

In order to provide answers to these questions, the workshop proposes an interdisciplinary dialogue between heritage  experts, public institutions and civil society stakeholders, and will reveal multiple perspectives regarding finding the right balance between heritage preservation and future-oriented development needs, while taking into account societal well-being. It will enable knowledge transfer, and the dissemination of successful cases and results of heritage-related projects, as well as exploring tools for the capacity-building of different types of stakeholders from European cities and regions.