As things take shape | Zsuzsa Nagy-Sándor

I feel that I have been struggling considerably with my thesis topic. I have been unable to find a point of entry into the subjects that excite me, that I think are worth working with and that I think will direct me towards a possible carrier path in the cultural heritage sector. Recently, I have had a realisation about certain such topics: contrary to how I have previously though I should approach certain subject, I wish to learn about them, learn their methods and approaches, and not to research them. Or at least not just yet. For example, in my previous blog post I wrote about community engagement and that I wish to investigate some of its questions, mostly relating to sustainability. What I have found since writing those words is that I am ill-prepared not only to tackle these issues, but to find a question that is narrow enough for me to understand but still worth investigating, because for me everything about the subject is new, and I cannot, without any knowledge or experience in the field, pinpoint it’s issues.

However, this does not mean that I am turning away completely from my original plans. I think I have found some really intriguing concepts and have come across initiatives and research projects of varying scales that I would like to take inspiration from, and perhaps even participate in down the line. Examples include the Cselekvő Közösségek, REACH, Open Heritage, Mind Space and the outreach programs of the Hungarian Open Air Museum of Szentendre. I am already in contact with the first and the last organisations mentioned here, and we are in the process of determining if an internship would be a feasible and worthwhile learning structure for me to take on.  

What is shared between all these initiatives, is a common will to involve the participation of wider communities in heritage work, to analyse and reevaluate the social responsibilities of cultural heritage work, and to look for sustainable options regarding both the continuity of community involvement and the the environmental sustainability of built heritage as well. In the process, key questions are addressed, such as what is a community, what is sustainability, how can heritage be financed, who is heritage for, an much more.

In trying to find my way within the labyrinth of this newly developing approach to heritage work – I would argue that the trends we see are not only a result of the New Museological turn of the past decades but a new chapter in its applications, especially in Hungary – I have come to realise that I need to choose a very small aspect of these large-scale, global, questions. I know that narrowing down the topic is one of the most crucial steps in a thesis writing. But it seemed my topics just wouldn’t narrow, they just kept growing and growing.

Then, a few days ago, my parents came over for a family meal. My parents, a librarian and city historian on one side and a teacher and ethnographer on the other, have always been a terrific source of inspiration for me, and have always helped me clarify and structure my ideas, offer examples and terminology from their own fields to broaden my perspective. As we sat down after dinner a heated discussion began – yes, we are nerds, we are very passionate about thesis projects. After several rounds of unsuccessful attempts at narrowing down my topic they began asking me questions and we strung together my answers. We found that while I cannot directly include every single aspect that interests me into one single topic, I can define a project that leaves room for experimenting with different approaches while, including elements that interest me the most in varying functions.

"Achieving sustainability will depend ultimately on changes in behavior and lifestyles, changes which will need to be motivated by a shift in values and rooted in the cultural and moral precepts upon which behavior is predicated. Without change of this kind, even the most enlightened legislation, the cleanest technology, the most sophisticated research will not succeed in steering society towards the long-term goal of sustainability."

UNESCO (1997) Educating for a Sustainable Future: 

A Transdisciplinary Vision for Concerted Action paragraph 103 

In my previous blog post I wrote the following:

“I wish to investigate issues of heritage related work meant to foster social goals."

Breaking this sentence down even further I see thee main questions I will have to answer in order to specify and narrow down my topic: What type of issues am I interested in? What specifically do I mean by heritage related work? What social goals do I wish to focus on?”

I think these questions still hold true, and through the conversation with my parents I can now give more concrete answers to them. While the answers this time around might seem different from those given in the previous blog post, I believe that they are simply more narrowed and specified, leaving room for the inclusion of things left out in the methodology of my project if not in the main research question itself.

My answers would now be:

• Issue: environmental sustainability and the heritage museum/initiative.
• Heritage related work: interpretation as a tool to create layers of narrative within an exhibition.
• Social goals: I am interested in how heritage institutions and organisations can help their communities learn about environmental challenges of the present, through understanding its history in the past, in a proactive way, to encourage them to make changes for the future.

And there it is, a formulation of a research goal. I have made the project even more concrete since then, writing an abstract, which you can find below. I am currently still struggling with finding the adequate terminology in English, that best matches the Hungarian ones I have found.

An abstract is taking shape!

It might seem like a small step, it might even seem like I have just made up a brand new topic; that I have essentially started over.  But to me it seems like a leap forward, in the right direction, a narrowing down that I can stand by and that shows me a way to tackle the large questions that I am interested in, in a comprehensible framework. To me it feels right.

Now my research can begin.

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For an inspiring teaching tool check out TEACHING AND LEARNING FOR A SUSTAINABLE FUTURE on the UNESCO website!