Four dimensions of digital heritage educational resources. The social dimension
The social dimension of the digital heritage educational resources is related to the social and civic values worked with the content and how it helps to improve the values as citizens to its users.
In this dimension, it is included all the actions, ways, and contents that foster inclusion and diversity, sustainable development following the UN Sustainable Development Goals and the democratization of education, and the open access to any information as well as the defense of human rights as the right to memory that it is very related to the cultural heritage.
1. Inclusion and diversity
The inclusion of all people and respect for diversity are basic pillars of our life in a society. These principles must be part of the development of the digital heritage education resources not only to favor the adoption of these values among the users but also to create a safe work environment during the whole process of development.
Also, it is necessary to disseminate respect and support to the richness and diversity of the cultural heritage, to raise awareness about the inequalities between the different communities who live in Europe (LGTBQ+ communities, different beliefs communities, people with any disability, etc), and support them actively across the educational resource.
In relation to the workflow, it should create a safe workspace where all stakeholders feel welcome and represented. Likewise, it should work in the code of conduct, the accessibility, and the impact assessment of all these aspects as some cultural heritage institutions do (Saouti et alii, 2020).
2. Sustainability
The museum is part of society, and for this reason, it must contribute to the maintenance of the democratic principles of equality and opportunity and imply in the sustainable development processes.
The social role of museums is related to the UN Sustainable Development Goals supporting with educational actions the development of open educational resources, open access to the information, the equality of opportunities, and the international cooperation for the development through the ITC tools and the digital transformation of the cultural heritage sector as some of their priorities.
2. Human rights
The social role of the museums and the cultural heritage institutions include the defense of the right to memory as one of the principles of human rights and one of the main aims to contribute to democracy in the World. For example, the destruction and pillage of the artistic heritage during and after the Second World War prompted a change of mentality towards the perception and conservation of the memory of the World in their cultural heritage items. For this reason, it was adopted in 1954 the Hague (The Netherlands) the Convention for the Protection of Cultural Property in the Event of Armed Conflict that aims to prevent the pillage and to ensure the return of the cultural heritage items to the territory where they were exported from (UNESCO, 1954).
The collective memory, according to Halbwachs (1925) in his work Les cadres sociaux de la mémoire, are the memories of the society. In this way, the collective memory of a community treasures a high heritage value.
The cultural heritage institutions and sites and the museums in their physical way, as well as the digital heritage resources, promote a broad framework for the defense of the rights and the acknowledgment of the facts which marked the existence of the different communities and collective memories of these groups along the time.
Find here the general perspective of the four dimensions or keep reading this series in the next post: the psychological dimension.
Bibliography
- Saouti, S; Eelman, A; Simons, E.; Groeneboer, J.; Hess, M.; Herschoe, L.; Steenbeek, L (2020): Diversity and Inclusion Code. Disponible en https://codedi.nl/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/Diversity-and-Inclusion-Code-English-version.pdf (Consultado el 27 de enero de 2021).
- UNESCO (1954): Final Act of the Intergovernmental Conference on the Protection of Cultural Property in the Event of Armed Conflict. The Hague, The Netherlands. Available on https://unesdoc.unesco.org/ark:/48223/pf0000082464 (Reviewed the 27 of May of 2021).
