Ponencia magistral de Marion Steiner en el XIX Congreso Mundial de TICCIH 2025 en Kiruna, Suecia.
Abstract:
Industrialization processes have been global from their beginnings, characterized by the worldwide circulation of people, ideas, technology, capital, raw materials, and products across borders of all kinds. Over centuries, these processes have shaped the face of our planet and defined unequal power relations between and within regions. The values of industrial heritage places, however, especially in contexts such as the World Heritage program, tend to be assessed within national frameworks and on the basis of superlative criteria that focus on the supposed superiority of one’s own nation and people. My talk argues that for the future, especially in times of global crises and growing geopolitical tensions, we must move beyond divisive ideas and create new narratives that help connect people as human beings and promote global understanding. Industrial heritage is a particularly helpful type of heritage in that sense as it illustrates the interconnectedness of our world. TICCIH, as the global community of industrial heritage experts and enthusiasts, with its renewed mission for the 21st century, aims to draw on the challenges we commonly face as humanity today to build shared global heritages and to reconnect with the founding motivation of UNESCO: “to build Peace in the minds of women and men.”