Cultural heritage has can be used to create and maintain norms, rules, traditions and societal structures. Cultural heritage can also be used as a justification to act in a certain way or to maintain status quo. In this seminar, Kalmar County Museum instead wants to highlight the opportunities for cultural heritage to contribute positively to the development of society. For Kalmar County Museum, it is important to work on issues related to sustainability, democracy and human rights. The museum highlights the strength and role of the cultural heritage to broaden the perspectives on current societal challenges.

Each site, each place, carries several stories. Depending on which stories that are highlighted, or not highlighted, the place is given a value and role in society. The cultural heritage affects how we understand a place. How we understand a place affects how it is treated. This, in turn, affects the people who are at the place, in their everyday lives.

Since 2000 Kalmar County Museum has worked internationally with applied cultural heritage / Time Travel Methodology. The method is based on the local place and contemporary challenges, where knowledge is drawn from local history, in order to reflect on the present and look ahead. The method aims to promote social cohesion and to contribute to change in attitude and behavior, which in turn can contribute to a positive impact on the development of society.

During the seminar, the museum's method will be presented, and participants will share the experiences and results they have gained, through concrete examples from collaborative projects in Kenya and South Africa. Project partners will give the seminar participants an insight in how they use cultural heritage to work with tensions and conflicts that are present in the local societies. In northern Kenya, the method has been used to bridge ethnic conflicts linked to land ownership and the change of the landscape in a world characterized by climate change. In western Kenya, the method is used to create reconciliation between universities and the surrounding community, connected to the violence that took place during the elections in 2007, where ethnic belonging is one of the underlying causes.

In South Africa, the method is implemented in all provinces and is used to create reflection and make change, with the aim of creating a dialogue between the past and the future of South Africa. Since the abolition of apartheid, South African society has changed, but many structures remain in society, often linked to the place you live, live and work in.

In this seminar, Kalmar County Museum with international partners wants to highlight the role and strength of the cultural heritage in order to create a sustainable social development on issues related to human rights.

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