MEMORYBOX focuses on the construction of social history and cultural heritage online and explores how web 2.0 can support a sustainable community identity for small geo/ethno – specific communities.

Geo-specific communities are gathered around a small geographical location, or a school, a youth club. Through MEMORYBOX, groups of people or small communities would explore their local history, what their community means to them, how they would choose to represent it for future generations, how they describe their lives / culture, and how the MEMORYBOX could sustain their ideas / views / values.

Ethno-specific communities are also often located in specific geographical spaces, and memory, heritage, and sustainability are again relevant. Here, however, the issue of cohesion and integration is also central. The way the cultural identity of a given local ethnic community develops and integrates with other communities, whilst maintaining a sense of memory and heritage are central to the cohesion and sustainability of the community itself. For example, if members of the Romany traveller community live on permanent caravan sites, how do they maintain their sense of identity if their nomadic lifestyle is no longer possible? The role of community memory in the affirmation of cultural identity is, therefore, significant and important. See, for example http://www.ruralmedia.co.uk/remember/

Project values:

•                    Community

•                    User generated content

•                    Cultural heritage

•                    Cohesion

•                    Collective memory

•                    Oral and visual histories

•                    Online spaces

•                    Sustainability

•                    Accessibility

 

Outcomes:

•             Creation of heritage web presence for small communities

•             Symposium / workshop and work from this exhibited on the website

•             HE research – journal article