Livre - Engaging Heritage, Engaging Communities

The ‘Heritage Matters’ Series Editorial Board Professor Peter Davis, Professor Peter G. Stone, Professor Chris Whitehead Heritage Matters is a series of edited and single-authored volumes which addresses the whole range of issues that confront the cultural heritage sector as we face the global challenges of the twenty-first century. The series follows the ethos of the International Centre for Cultural and Heritage Studies (ICCHS) at Newcastle University, where these issues are seen as part of an integrated whole, including both cultural and natural agendas, and thus encompasses challenges faced by all types of museums, art galleries, heritage sites and the organisations and individuals that work with, and are affected by, them. Across the global networks of heritage sites, museums, and galleries, the importance of communities to the interpretation and conservation of heritage is increasingly being recognised. Yet the very term “meaningful community engagement” betrays a myriad of contrary approaches and understandings. Who is a community? How can they engage with heritage and why would they want to? How do communities and heritage professionals perceive one another? What does it mean to "engage"? Engaging Heritage, Engaging Communities critically explores the latest debates and practices surrounding community collaboration. By examining the different ways in which communities participate in heritage projects, the book questions the benefits, costs and limitations of community engagement. Whether communities are engaging through innovative initiatives or in response to economic, political or social factors, there is a need to understand how such engagements are conceptualised, facilitated and experienced by both the organisations and the communities involved. Bryony Onciul is Lecturer in History at the University of Exeter; Michelle Stefano is a Folklife Specialist in the American Folklife Center, Library of Congress; Stephanie Hawke is a project manager in the North West of England, specialising in cultural and creative education.