The Routledge Handbook of Heritage Ethics - new publication

MCL members Kate Hennessy and PhD Candidate Brett Gaylor have co-authored a chapter with Prof. Chiara Bonacchi (the University of Edinburgh, Chancellor's Fellow in Heritage, Text and Data Mining and Senior Lecturer in Heritage; HCA and Edinburgh Futures Institute) titled “Creative Engagements with Heritage Ethics in the Age of the Data Deluge” in the Routledge Handbook of Heritage Ethics, edited by Andreas Pantazatos, Tracy Ireland, John Schofield and Rouran Zhang. Learn more about this new book.

Bonacchi, C., Hennessy, K. and Gaylor, B. (In Press, 2026).
Creative Engagements with Heritage Ethics in the Age of the Data Deluge.In, The Routledge Handbook of Heritage Ethics. Andreas Pantazatos, Tracy Ireland, John Schofield and Rouran Zhang (Eds.) London: Routledge.

Abstract 

The last decade has seen an unprecedented proliferation of data resulting from an increasingly interactional web. The born-digital and digitised outcomes of people’s interactions with heritage ‘things’ online have been variously produced, selectively shared, made hyper-visible, obscured or deleted on social media. Our chapter draws on case studies from international projects that shed light on the ethical implications of the data deluge for heritage ecologies composed of researchers, professionals, individuals and communities. We evaluate the conditions under which and for whom, in different contexts, the ‘free’ culture and ‘move fast and break things’ approach advocated by Big Tech may be beneficial or indeed harmful, and any grey areas in-between. In addition, we discuss alternative engagements driven by artists, research-creation practitioners, and by Indigenous communities and organisations in collaboration with museums and universities to examine the ethics of social media and sharing in the digital age. We draw attention to both the opportunities offered by social media data practices and their limitations. At the same time we show that creative engagements with data and heritage raise important questions that may guide emerging understandings of ethics that account for the cultural, historical, political, and environmental contexts in which heritage is manufactured and represented. 

Dr Chiara Bonacchi, Chancellor’s Fellow in Heritage, Text and Data Mining and Senior Lecturer in Heritage, University of Edinburgh

Dr Kate Hennessy, Associate Professor, School of Interactive Arts and Technology, Simon Fraser University

Brett Gaylor, PhD Candidate, School of Interactive Arts and Technology, Simon Fraser University