Quality & Sustainability Assurance

MaNet takes responsibility for providing quality and sustainability assurance, applying risk assessment, forecasting, monitoring and control.

 

Risk Assessment

The first risk assessment must be linked to the results of the in-depth survey of the first phase according to the research agenda that seeks to recognize threats and identify sensible measures to control them. Furthermore, continuous risk assessment taking into account tendencies and unforeseen events is perceived as a primary element of the quality assurance.

 

Forecasting

Sustainability assurance involves estimating possible changes based on the survey results and on the assessed risks. In the context of MaNet a very important forecast is connected to the age structure. The majority of the people who are former Mastorochoria natives and who visit the villages periodically but at specific times, are pensioners. Their permanent residence in urban centres has made them adopt contemporary lifestyle and mentalities. In contrast to this, the locals, who are elderly, live in ‘frozen’ time keeping and maintaining the character of the decades-long lifestyle, traditions and customs in these villages. Taking into consideration the significant age and mentality differences, we are able to make a forecasting about the future of the cultural heritage of the Mastorochoria area. The shift of values is an urgent matter in view of the fact that the next generations of locals, who are pensioners, have different, urbanized attitudes and their interpretation of the past is often biased. Furthermore, in the next years today’s pensioners will be the last able to safeguard the Mastorochoria cultural heritage. Thus, a comprehensive campaign should be designed in order to raise the awareness of the next generations, impart the authentic meaning and content of the local culture of Mastorochoria and safeguard its integrity and its transmission to younger people.

 

Monitoring & Control Mechanisms

Monitoring and control is perceived as an indispensable instrument of implementation: changes have to be monitored, the impacts of the actions taken have to be evaluated, and decisions have to be redefined if necessary at all stages of the process (COE 2008:39). Periodic reporting, one of the monitoring tools of UNESCO, is to provide the monitoring and control of the project, while exchanging information and experiences and documenting the change in circumstances (UNESCO 2014). An interdisciplinary working group is in charge of submitting the report in accordance with the pre-established schedule. A concept of ‘commemorative integrity’, created by Canadian national authorities, is to be applied. The concept manages the communication of heritage values to the audiences (Mason 2006).