Event: National Bertsolaris Championship (Bilbao, December 2017).
Type of participation: Research, participant observation.
The 17th edition of the National Bertsolaris Championship (Bertsolari Txapelketa Nagusia) took place in the Bilbao Exhibition Center (December 2017). This is a sung, rhymed and metered discourse competition which take place every four years and gathers the best singers from all over the Basque Country. The 2017 winner was Maialen Lujanbio, as she did in 2009 when she became the first woman to win the National Bertsolaris Championship in the history of bertsolaritza. She did an interview in 2007 for the journal Oral Tradition (http://journal.oraltradition.org/issues/22ii/eizagirre).
The organisation responsible for organising the National Bertsolaris Championship is Bertsozale Elkartea (Association of Friends of Bertsolarianism). Bertsozale was born as a non-profit cultural association in 1987 to promote bertsolarism in a broad sense through its transmission, research and conservation in the Basque-speaking territories – Áraba, Bizkaia , Gipuzkoa, Nafarroa, Lapurdi, Nafarroa Beherea and Zuberoa – which are currently divided between the Spanish and French states.
Bertzosale Elkartea is a case study of HESIOD. We consider this as a good example of social innovation ecosystem that has involved a large number of users by replication and scale leaps. The association allows the propagation of ideas and methodologies through the creation of its own dissemination programmes and structures (bertso schools, championships, events), involving different public-private sectors. Non-relocatable jobs and several spin-offs both private and non-profit have been created. Local involvement is fuelled by bertso schools, educational programs and membership, while working with regional and international structures and involving organisations from other countries. The movement of bertsolarism is an example of good practice; they open its methodology, investigation, and archives, favoring research in other institutions such as the university.
Event: I Encuentro Patrimonio de Proximidad (Seville, May, 2018).
Type of participation: Research results presentation.
On May 7 and 8, the Andalusian Institute of Historical Heritage held the First Proximity Heritage Meeting. This event served as a meeting point for different heritage activation initiatives in the Andalusian territory, many of them socially innovative. We showed there our methodological proposal for cultural heritage analysis as a driver of social innovation and the large audience well received some of our results.
Event: Cultural Heritage: innovating on past and future (Vitoria-Gasteiz, December 2018).
Type of participation: Research results presentation.
Under the slogan “innovating the past”, the Conference revisited Cultural Heritage from the social perspective of memory (fluctuating and unstable) and of monuments (contextual and relational). Under the slogan “innovating the future”, the Conference aimed to discuss the future scenarios of Cultural Heritage in terms of new governance models, new strategies of technological inclusion (digitalization) and new forms of social participation.
Programme Link: https://innovating.catedralvitoria.eus/en/program/
Some of 2018 results
We identified new study cases and created synergies with other organisations and institutions for future projects. Actually, we are now partners in two Horizon 2020 proposals.