The Role of Heritage Communities in Cultural Heritage Management

Abstract

Abstract This chapter investigates the role of communities and social groups in cultural heritage management, in the name of the participatory and cooperative processes promoted at the level of international law. The predominant focus will be on the Framework Convention on the Value of Cultural Heritage for Society (the Faro Convention) and the innovative notion of heritage communities it introduces. Aware of the meaningful contribution that effective participatory processes ensure in the safeguarding of cultural heritage, heritage communities have carved out, and now increasingly claim, a decisive role in cultural heritage management, alone, in cooperation with public authorities, or even in contrast to those authorities. In addition, many social and civil groups already act as heritage communities themselves without being aware yet of the Faro Convention. Over the last decade, the initiatives developed on the ground by communities at the domestic level, and also through sharing experiences and suggestions at the transnational level, show how heritage communities in many European states identify themselves in places, traditions, tangible/intangible goods, and history and actively engage to protect, regenerate, and transmit them. At the same time, a push for heritage communities to engage in the definition, safeguarding, and management of cultural heritage reveals the contribution of civil society’s actions toward improving the quality of democratic processes, fostering local economic and social development, and addressing pressing current issues such as migrants’ inclusion, depopulation, and gentrification.