Ever since his innovative Contemporary Theory of Conservation (2005), Salvador Muñoz-Viñas, the Spanish paper conservator and Professor of Conservation and Restoration at the Universitat Politècnicade València, enjoys a global reputation as a theoretician of conservation. Now he has published a new volume providing an original view of cultural heritage at large. A Theory of Cultural Heritage: Beyond the Intangible offers a novel ‘taxonomy’ and ‘anatomy’ of cultural heritage.

Sending messages beyond the Earth and into deep space is an occupation that many people find fascinating and inspiring. Space messages evoke powerful themes: the variety of human legacies on Earth, the uniqueness of humanity as such, and the remote corners and distant futures of the universe. This volume provides a useful introduction to the history and practice of space messages sent from Earth, exploring a range of key issues and their social and cultural contexts.

The future is an important new topic for archaeology. Archaeologists do not only study past futures but are also concerned with future pasts and in particular with the impact of their work on future societies. Drawing on the notion of “heritage futures”, archaeological heritage is claimed to contribute to sustainable development and address challenges posed by climate change, human conflicts, and others.

Den här rapporten för ihop GRASCA:s nio årsrapporter för åren 2015–2024. Den berättar en historia om GRASCA som i första hand inte handlar om pengar (som företagen och universitet är tvungna att fokusera på oftast) och inte heller om uppdragsarkeologi (som GRASCA mest handlade om). Rapporten GRASCA i praktiken handlar i stället om vad vi gjorde med och inom GRASCA under alla år vi var igång tillsammans. Den kompletterar det som för det mesta finns eller kommer finnas tillgängligt på andra håll: alla anteckningarna som togs i mötena av styrelse, ledningsgrupp och handledarkollegium; de individuella studieplaner; dekanbesluten; budgetredovisningar; en rad gemensamma och individuella presentationer och publikationer; och inte minst licentiatuppsatserna och doktorsavhandlingarna som stod i centrum av det mesta. Texterna som samlas här speglar vår gemensamma utveckling inom GRASCA, medan bilderna kanske framför allt väcker minnen av de som var med och det de gjorde. En ordentlig analys och utvärdering av GRASCA återstår att genomföras framöver men här finns en del material som kan belysa vad som hände år för år.

Purpose: This article explores the concept of “heritage futures”, the role of heritage in managing relations between present and future societies. It assesses how thinking strategically about the future changes, complicates and contextualises practices of heritage. What might an attention to the future bring to work in heritage, and simultaneously, what challenges—both practical and ethical—arise?

Design/methodology/approach: This article takes the form of a conversation about the nature of heritage futures and how such a project may be implemented in both heritage practice and field research in heritage studies. The two authors are heritage scholars who integrate heritage futures questions into their research in different ways, and their conversation uncovers potentialities and difficulties in the heritage futures project.

Findings: The discussion covers the particular ethical issues that arise when the dimension of time is added to heritage research and practice, including questions of continuism, presentism and specificity. The conversation argues for the importance of considering the future in heritage studies and heritage practice and that this forms a key part of understanding how heritage may be part of building a sustainable present and future.

Originality/value: The future is an under-examined concept within heritage studies, even as heritage is often framed as something to be preserved “for future generations”. But what impact might it have on heritage practice to really consider what this means, beyond the platitude? This article suggests that heritage scholars and practitioners direct their attention to this often-neglected facet of heritage.

I am reflecting on the past, present, and future of plastics. In discussing plastics in relation to climate change, human and non-human life, and in terms of cultural richness, I demonstrate that studying plastics from an archaeological and cultural heritage perspective can offer alternative, fresh, and much-needed perspectives on both the contemporary world and the future. I also discuss in what way plastics are valuable and improve lives, despite the fact that they simultaneously present threats and dangers.

Over more than a century of museum and heritage practices, it has been maintained that we need to protect and preserve the past for the benefit of future generations. Emerging discussions in Heritage Studies on heritage futures have started to challenge the axiomatic nature of this rhetoric, showing that preservation is not always the best (or sole) way to address the future in museum and heritage practices. Here we draw on these emerging discussions to address museum futures and other heritage futures. We elaborate on examples of possible futures in museums and heritage practices, including aspects of security policy and mobilization of civil societies in conflict situations, museum and heritage activism for the future, climate change and ways to embrace change to accommodate for sustainable futures. From our results we see variation in how futures are anticipated in museum and heritage practices, including addressing futures as: (1) unspoken and implicit; (2) as a contemporary agenda to act from; or (3) as an unfinished process that informs contemporary practices.