B5651 - HERITAGE, HISTORY AND THE ISSUE OF ORGANIZING

Learning outcomes

The Student is expected to develop knowledge and skills in historical research. Drawing on cases and debates in arts and heritage, the course is focused on methodological issues affecting management discourse in historical terms. Managing (or organizing) is looked at as an element affecting ways in which arts & heritage are dealt with; and as sources itself of current days heritage.

Course contents

The course will investigate the complex relationship between heritage, history, and the issue of managing (or organizing). Drawing on cases and debates in arts and heritage, the course will focus on methodological issues affecting management discourse in historical terms. It is not focused on heritage history, nor on management history per se. Rather, aadministration (or the issue of managing/organizing) will be looked at as an element affecting ways in which arts & heritage are dealt with; and as sources itself of current days heritage.

While getting substantive insights about important debates and controversies, the student will learn to deal with complex interdisciplinary research programs. The workshop is structured in 15 classes, each focused on a particularly intriguing example of a complex relationship between the three elements (heritage, history, and managing). Through international video conferences, experts on particular topics will be involved in most of the classes. The course presents a strong interdisciplinary character as well as a focus on international/global context.

The course will intensively use images, videos, documentaries, on the assumption that new forms of communication in this field are already available, making it possible to integrate efforts done by others in documentary production.

There is no effort in providing a systematic historical picture, but more simply a set of challenging chapters in the relationship between history, arts and management, keeping in mind specific researches I am familiar with. The precise list of topics will be identified later, depending on the availability of experts on various topics. A tentative list of the sessions, and the rational for using them, are provided here. From year to year, individual “chapters” could be alternated if necessary.

2023-24 List of sessions (in progress)

1. Introduction

Course goals and contents, logistics and organizational issues

The issue of history & historicity in mgnt studies

2. De-frosting the archaeological chain: Oetzi, the man in the ice

Media: BBC, A life in the ice

Issues:

a. The organizing of economic activity in “primitive” societies

b. Managing a complex interdisciplinary research projects

c. Competing epistemologies at work

3. Civilization in China: controversies between archaeologists and historians

Media: CCTV, Yin Xu (Anyang, Henan)

Guest: Haiming Yan, CACH

Issues:

a. Archaeologist, material culture and sense making

b. From archaeological finds to history

c. Competing worlds: China archaeology and historians

4. Managing Urban Monuments in the Roman Empire: Architecture, Economics, and Heritage

Guest: Dan Shoup, US

Issues:

a. How do we study the ancient Roman economy?

b. Urban monuments: patronage and politics, building and re-building (2000 years later)

c. Sagalassos: Managing ancient monuments today

5. Il Discorso del maneggio: management & accounting practices at the Venice Arsenal, 1600.

Media: Archival documents

Issues:

a. Managing the Venice Arsenal in the turn of the 16th century

b. Proto industrial history and management: difficulties and implications

c. A research agenda

6. Managing history: the Venice Arsenal as industrial archaeological heritage

Media: Original documents

Issues:

a. Shifting meanings: from “administrative heritage” to heritage

b. Re-using the Arsenal as (proto)industrial archaeological asset: A master plan for the recovery project

c. Institutional conflicts and shortcomings

7. Carlos III, Pompeii & Herculaneum in the history of the organization of Archaeology

Media: Pictures Pompeii & Herculaneum

Guest: Dr. Francesco Sirano, Director, Archaeological Park of Herculaneum

Issues:

a. Carlos III, innovation at RTF, 1773; & Carlo di Borbone, the early stages of Pompeii excavation

b. Herculaneum: the experience of HCP

c. Herculaneum Archaeological Park: an update

8.The Anatomy of the British Industrial Revolution

Media: BBC (Jeremy Black), Why the Industrial Revolution happened here?

Guest: Alessandro Nuvolari, Sant’ Anna School of Advanced Studies

Issues:

a. The industrial revolution and the origins of modern economic growth

b. The causes of the industrial revolution

c. The economic history of the industrial revolution: the dynamics of technological, economic and social change

9. Consumption (and marketing) in historical perspective: The 1900 house

Media: PBS, 1900 House

Guest: Three virtual guests from previous editions

Issues:

a. Historicity of consumption culture

b. The long term evolution of consumption in the West

c. ADV and the arts: a crucial tie

10. Business and the Arts: the role of International Expo

Media: Pictures and clips

Guest: Prof. Jeffrey Johnson, Kentucky University
Jadranka Bentini, former Soprintendente in Bologna TBC

Issues:

a. World Fairs & economic history as a complex object of study

b. The historical relationship between World Fairs and the history of architecture

c. World fairs and the Arts

11. Economic development and architecture: Chicago the city of the century

Media: PBS, Chicago city of the century

Issues:

a. A total history approach from initial settlement to 1900

b. A conversation on Chicago in the history of architecture

c. A tribute to Richard Nickel, and the movement for protection of historical buildings

12. Wild Card class: 2024 ediition

Guest: Grada Ricci, UNESCO Consultant for Exhibition design and museums

Gerhard Flora and Harlad Trapp, AKT, Wien (TBC).

Issues:

a. Unesco work form inside: a professional’s view

b. The Austrian Pavilion art the 2023 Biennale Architecture: problematizing participation

13. From genocide to repatriation:The Native American debate

Media: Reel Injun

Guest: Prof. Francois Bastien, Un. of Victoria

Issues:

a. To not forget: a recent genocide

b. Reconciliation: native American and museology in the US

c. Repatriation, identity and museums

14. Management & History

Issues:

a. The troubled history of recent management studies

b. Management and Americanization: The Carnegie & Ford reports and their impacts

c. The conflict between professional relevance & theoretical elegance

Readings/Bibliography

In progress
A precise list of readings (to be done before/after class) will be made available on Moodle before the course starts

Teaching methods

The course uses a seminar methodology. Students are asked to prepare discussions before classes, and to read articles and chapters before and after classes, according to the scheduling provided.

Assessment methods

The grade will be based on the contribution to the class discussion (40%), and on the quality of a final report that the student will be asked to submit after the end of the course.

Teaching tools

The course will make intensive use of documentaries and visual materials, partly provided by the teacher, partly to be found by students

Office hours

See the website of Luca Zan