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Cultural resilience: The production of rural community heritage, digital archives and the role of volunteers.

Beel, David E.; Wallace, Claire D.; Webster, Gemma; Nguyen, Hai; Tait, Elizabeth; Macleod, Marsaili; Mellish, Chris

Authors

David E. Beel

Claire D. Wallace

Hai Nguyen

Elizabeth Tait

Marsaili Macleod

Chris Mellish



Abstract

The following paper addresses a lacuna in the literature relating to the concept of resilience. To date, cultural activity in relation to resilient communities has been given little attention and this paper will highlight how the lens of community heritage activities and the ‘bottom-up’ role of volunteer labour can act as a catalyst for building more resilient communities in rural areas. This develops from rural areas that have strong place identities, formed through the reproduction of traditional cultural practices alongside contemporary influences. These identities are performed and constructed through a varied repertoire of knowledges, histories, and customs. Their on-going production can be central to community identity as they attempt to make visible their own accounts of history and place. Beyond this, community heritage organisations have also begun to have grounded ‘impacts’ that move away from heritage interests alone, often revitalising buildings and providing community services. This will be used to highlight how such cultural heritage activity builds collective resilience. A further trend (in the UK) has been for community heritage groups to digitise collections, due to the perceived transformational effect for community regeneration, the strengthening of community cohesion and the potential socio-economic benefits. In partnership with community heritage groups, the CURIOS (Cultural Repositories and Information Systems) project explores two case studies in rural Scotland asking how community activity, connectivity and digital archives can support interest in local heritage as well as help develop more resilient communities.

Citation

Beel, D. E., Wallace, C. D., Webster, G., Nguyen, H., Tait, E., Macleod, M., & Mellish, C. (2017). Cultural resilience: The production of rural community heritage, digital archives and the role of volunteers. Journal of Rural Studies, 54, 459-468. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jrurstud.2015.05.002

Journal Article Type Article
Acceptance Date May 12, 2015
Online Publication Date Oct 9, 2015
Publication Date 2017-08
Deposit Date Mar 4, 2016
Publicly Available Date Mar 28, 2024
Journal Journal of Rural Studies
Print ISSN 0743-0167
Publisher Elsevier
Peer Reviewed Peer Reviewed
Volume 54
Pages 459-468
DOI https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jrurstud.2015.05.002
Keywords Resilience; Culture; Heritage; Digital archives; Community;
Public URL http://researchrepository.napier.ac.uk/id/eprint/9475
Publisher URL http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jrurstud.2015.05.002

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