10. Unesco
Intangible Heritage
When we insisted on tackling the topic of professional
training in industrial heritage at the TICCIH XIII
Congress in Terni last September, we meant our talk
to be a bit provocative. But it was not, as it sounds
after the reactions we got, as professional heritage
training in the academic world is now an accepted
fact.
We may hear about conflicts between ‘classical’
teaching and field training, about evaluation methods
when it becomes clear that a good industrial
heritage professional may not be an outstanding essay
writer, of the difficult dialogue
between architectural training and heritage
preservation. But all of this is a matter of internal
discussion. We teach industrial heritage as regular
university courses, we give lectures to
give a hint about industrial heritage to students
following other curricula, we are involved in
continuing education courses given to urban planners,
county or town administrative
officers, tour guides. To put it in a nutshell, we do our
job.
The question that remains is if and how our teaching is
adapted to the labour market, and whether the young
people we train are efficient in the field of industrial
heritage preservation, management, understanding
and appreciation.
In other words, is our work useful?
11. Unesco
Intangible Heritage
The International Committee For The
Conservation Of The Industrial Heritage
The world organisation for industrial
heritage, promoting preservation,
conservation, investigation,
documentation, research and
interpretation of our industrial heritage.
This wide field includes the material
remains of industry - industrial sites,
buildings and architecture, plant,
machinery and equipment - as well as
housing, industrial settlements, industrial
landscapes, products and processes, and
documentation of the industrial society.
Members of TICCIH come from all over
the world and include historians,
conservators, museum curators,
researchers, students, teachers, heritage
professionals and anyone with an interest
in the development of industry and
industrial society.