Exploring the cohesive and social potential of a territorial ecomuseum in eastern sicily

Abstract

ABSTRACT Thinking ethnographically with the work of Alberto Magnaghi, this paper explores the tensions and nuances of constructing ‘territory’ throuxgh the making of an ecomuseum in the Simeto River Valley in southern Italy. Conceptualised by Hugues de Varine and Henri Rivière, ecomuseums are community-based processes for reconstructing the material and immaterial signs of the past to revive a shared sense of heritage. Based on our engagement in a long-term action research process, interviews, focus groups, participation in itineraries and coordination activities, we trace how a group of actors involved in the Simeto Ecomuseum (SiEco) conceptualise different relationships to the territory and articulations of heritage to nurture futures in the Simeto Valley. We explore their diverse expressions of place attachment and political consciousness throughout this process. We suggest that ecomuseums can act as sites of social cohesion, if they generate a shared understanding and care of territory. However, this is complicated by diverse relationships to physical and cultural spaces, made visible in the ways boundaries are (re)made and unmade and in the difficulties of maintaining ongoing and inclusive collective processes over time. We call for the problematisation of the meanings and actions of ‘territory’, community and inclusion in the processes of cultural heritage-making.