Cultural Heritage and Development in Fragile Contexts: Learning from the Interventions of International Cooperation in Afghanistan and Neighboring Cou

The book aims at debating the development of cooperation approaches for the protection and safeguard cultural heritage in countries characterized by various kinds of fragility. Comparing relevant case studies and critically analyzing opportunities and obstacles, the text investigates approaches of safeguard cultural heritage, intended as a driving wheel for the socioeconomic development of the region and for the empowerment of the local community. The book presents a geographical framework focused on the Middle East, with an in-depth exploration of the World Heritage Site of Bamiyan, Afghanistan, in the aftermath of the fall of the Afghan government in August 2021.The content of the book consists of an introduction and four main sections. The first two sections are dedicated to Bamiyan which represents a very interesting case study, since the Bamiyan Valley has been at the center of important interventions of international cooperation during the last two decades. These interventions have been interrupted by the Taliban takeover of the State. As a consequence, the international donors and the agencies for development cooperation are now facing a situation of uncertainty: What to learn from the Bamiyan case? Should the huge amount of investments for the safeguarding of the cultural heritage be cast away or would it be worth reactivating some interventions? And under what conditions? To the paradigmatic case of Bamiyan, the text offers first (section 1) a review of the main actions of cultural heritage protection realized in the area since the UNESCO nomination of the valley as a World Heritage Site in 2003. The aim of this section is to discuss the achievements carried out by cooperation until the Taliban takeover and to highlight the most critical issues concerning the possibility to operate in the new political context. Secondly (section 2) the book expands on the relationships between heritage preservation and the policies apt to manage the exponential urban and demographic growth, a key topic in Bamiyan and in the Afghan cities (as well as in other cities in the region). The contributions presented in this chapter are written by the members of the Afghanistan research team of Florence University that developed the "Bamiyan Strategic Masterplan" in 2018. The contributions zoom on concerns of heritage conservation intertwined with the the social and cultural dimension of the local community and are based on data collected by the authors during the field research that took place immediately before the Taliban takeover. The third part of the book (section 3) is dedicated to a review and comparison between methodologies and approaches implemented for safeguarding cultural heritage in the Middle East by the Italian Agency for Development Cooperation, by UNESCO and selected international NGOs. This set of contributions offer evidence of key relationships between the protection of cultural heritage, development dynamics and mitigation of social and economic fragilities in terms of sustainability. Lastly, the fourth section of the book provides a reasoned report on the main outcomes both in terms of research and operational approach.

This is an open access book.