Social Platform for Holistic Heritage Impact Assessment (SoPHIA) - Report on the online workshop, 28 April, 2021

The European Museums Academy has teamed up with the Harnessing Museums, Heritage and Education Network of PASCAL on the 28^th of April to organise a joint webinar on cooperation with the  SoPHIA- Social Platform for Holistic Impact Assessment.

SoPHIA aims to promote collective reflection with the cultural and political sectors in Europe on the impact and quality of interventions in the European historical environment and cultural heritage at an urban level to promote a holistic impact assessment model, indicators, and standards.

Participants were invited from PASCAL, which has an advisory role in the project, the European Museum Academy (EMA), SoPHIA EU Horizon project coordinating University -   Roma Tre, and the Interarts Foundation in  Barcelona. Henrik Zipsane, Director of the European Museum Academy and PASCAL Associate welcomed all 14 participants. Rob Mark, Coordinator of the Learning Cities Network of PASCAL provided a brief introduction to that organisation.

Mercedes Giovinazzo, Director of Interarts presented background information and rationale behind the SoPHIA project. The need to understand and describe the impact of interventions in heritage in a structured form has grown and was expressed by the European Commission when they made the call for projects under the Horizon 2020 program.

The partners in the SoPHIA project have worked systematically in a three-step process. The project commenced with a literary review concentrating on policy and academic literature around heritage interventions and impact measurement. The second step was producing a draft impact assessment model, which involved testing the draft model in 12 different situations in Europe, and the third step, the production of policy recommendations and guidelines. The model as a tool will only partially be a result of the project. Another result will be establishing a social platform for further use and development of the impact assessment model.

Mauro Baioni, a researcher at Roma Tre University presented the SoPHIA draft model which is structured within 9 elements as follows:

• Social capital
• Sense of place
• Well-being/quality of life
• Knowledge
• Strong EU and global partnerships
• Prosperity
• Attractiveness
• Protection
• Innovation

Each of these elements is sub-divided into different perspectives and can be described in both qualitative and quantitative aspects.

Following the presentations, the role and importance of such a model as SoPHIA was discussed. It was mentioned that it is important to consider who will use this model in the future.  For example, is the model an academic product that will “only” be used in academic studies or will the model have a wider use? Will it be necessary to develop the model towards specific areas of use or can a general model be used as a’ select and choose’ list from which the user can take what is needed for a particular assessment description?

Angela Wieser, a researcher at EDUCULT, presented the case of MuseumQuartier Vienna and her findings when applying the Cultural Heritage Impact Assessment Draft Model. The MuseumsQuartier is a long-term intervention in the area in front of old castle stables were there for three decades or more has been located different museums and other activities – in all more than 60 different activities. At the same time, the area is in part a residential area. The outspoken ambition has been to develop the area like a door opener to arts and culture.

The assessment analysis has taken approximately four months to develop. The sources have been documents from the different stakeholders, seven qualitative interviews, one focus group discussion, surveys, and contacts taken by Angela to the involved public authorities. Even with such a broad and relatively rich material, there have been situations where the material has been too fragmented for getting results that are not debatable. There have also been many aspects that are richly documented and among them, both qualitative and quantitative measures, for example, revealed depths in conflicts between stakeholders – not least the cultural activities and residents. On the other hand, it was difficult to assess the economic impact of the cultural intervention as there was not sufficient financial data available.

The use of the assessment model has some clear benefits. The model revealed that the transfer of cultural and social capital to the surrounding area appears to be relatively modest, but at the same time many new jobs had been created which relates to the activities in the MuseumQuartier. The original ambition of a constant flow of visitors and users to the area had instead experienced periods of relative calm in between very attractive events.

Angela Wieser concluded that the assessment model had shown to be relatively useful, yet with some need for modification.

The workshop participants discussed the model as well as possible implementation issues. There was common support for the model as a much-needed tool for raising awareness of the impact of cultural interventions and the need to understand the broad variety of impacts in many aspects of life. The participants also discussed the model as a tool, and it was mentioned by many that such a tool needs to be implemented in a different form for different users. It cannot be one size fits all.

The discussion among the participants focused on the idea of the strategic perspective on the assessment model. It was discussed if the model in looking backward on what has been done could also be used pro-actively. Can the assessment model be used for planning future cultural interventions? An advantage in such a step would be the opportunity to influence both qualitative and quantitative measures as a process for continuous updating of quality management. Finally, it was mentioned that the implementation of the assessment model in full seemed to require a lot of time. It was therefore recommended that the assessment model could be refined and developed in such a way that it is possible to use it for different purposes of analysis.

PASCAL and EMA hope to reach out to the already existing and new participants in the Learning City Networks and would like to invite everyone to participate in the discussions and further developing of the SoPHIA social platform with its task of developing an impact assessment model. 

It was felt important for the model to have as wide as possible ownership to promote the relevance of the model across different sectors. 

All the participants of the workshop will be contacted about the next steps in due course.

Henrik Zipsane and Rob Mark

Agenda

• Welcome, who is who?
• A short introduction to SoPHIA and the CH Impact Assessment draft model
• Discussion
• An example from the testing phase: MuseumQuartier in Vienna as a case in Austria
• Discussion
• Invitation to continue participation in Impact Assessment model development.

Participants

1. Alberto Cerezo, Interarts, SoPHIA, Spain
2. Anders Hogberg, Linnaeus University, Sweden
3. Angela Wieser, EDUCULT, SoPHIA, Austria
4. Catherine Lido, University of Glasgow, PASCAL, United Kingdom
5. Denise Reghenzani, PASCAL, Australia
6. Flavia Marucci, Roma Tre University, SoPHIA, Italy
7. Henrik Zipsane, European Museum Academy, PACAL, SoPHIA, Sweden
8. Irina Sikorskaya, Donetsk State University of Management at Mauriopol City , Ukraine
9. Jac Torres Gomez, Wyndham City Council, Australia
10. John Smithies, RMIT University, Australia
11. Mafalda Damaso, Kings’ College London, United Kingdom
12. Marten Ma, Tapei City, Taiwan
13. Margherita Sani, Regione Emilia Romagna, Italy
14. Mauro Baioni, Roma Tre University, SoPHIA, Italy
15. Mercedes Giovinazzo, Interarts, SoPHIA, Spain
16. Peter Kearns, PASCAL, Australia
17. Rob Mark, University of Glasgow, PASCAL, Scotland, United Kingdom & Dublin City University , Ireland
18. Søren Ehlers, Helmut Schmidt University, Germany
19. Tine Fristrup, Aarhus University, Denmark