Coordinated by Coventry University with participation of important international partners, the upcoming three-year REACH project will establish a Social Platform as a sustainable space for meeting, discussion and collaboration by a wide-ranging network of professionals, institutions, researchers, arts practitioners, associations, and interest groups representative of non-professionals with a stake in research and practice in the field of culture and cultural heritage (CH).
The REACH Social Platform’s activities will have a twofold scope:
₋ Support: to map and provide analysis of research results achieved in previous programmes, to identify current and emerging research trends, and to offer authoritative new knowledge of the CH field to the European Commission and policy-makers
₋ Coordination: to offer benefits to its participants, expanding knowledge of complementary research and practice domains, and of new methodologies, generating opportunities for cooperation, offering pathways to wider user-engagement with research and practitioner outputs.
The REACH Social Platform will create tools and instruments to trigger the debate on how participatory approaches can contribute to develop a common horizon of understanding and trigger social innovation processes.
To backend the project development, a wide range of research activities on cultural heritage and its changes in the digital era will be carried on, and 4 thematic Pilots will be launched soon. Each Pilot has the aim to validate and improve different models of participation showing in practice usefulness and possible difficulties that may arise. They cover the following thematic areas: Minority Heritage, Institutional Heritage, Rural Heritage, Small Towns Heritage.
In the context of radical social changes taking place at all levels – from the local to the global – , Europe faces a serious challenge: the need for its citizens to live together in peace and mutual respect and to value and enjoy the diversity of cultures across society. The REACH project is based on the proposition that CH plays an important role in contributing to social integration in Europe, and that a fuller and more detailed picture of the range, type and impact of research and participatory research methodologies, current and future, associated with these subjects will further enhance their potential for social good.
REACH partners will soon meet for kicking off all the activities. Stay tuned for more news soon.
REACH consortium:
- Coventry University, UK
- Promoter S.r.l. , Italy
- Stiftung Preussischer Kulturbesitz, Germany
- Eotvos Lorand Tudomanyegyetem, Hungary
- Universidad de Granada, Spain
- Univerzita Karlova, Czech Republic
- Ministero dello Sviluppo Economico, Italy
