Lectio praecursoria: Johanna Turunen's contemporary cultural studies dissertation “Unlearning narratives of privilege: A decolonial reading of the European Heritage Label” was examined at the ...University of Jyväskylä on the 24th September 2021. The opponent was Dr. Jasper Chalcraft (European University Institute) and the custos was Associate Professor Tuuli Lähdesmäki (University of Jyväskylä).
Creating and Governing Cultural Heritage in the European Union provides an interdisciplinary examination of the ways in which European cultural heritage is created, communicated, and governed via the ...European Heritage Label scheme. Drawing on ethnographic field research conducted at sites in ten countries that have been awarded with the European Heritage Label, the authors of the book approach heritage as an entangled social, spatial, temporal, discursive, narrative, performative, and embodied process. Recognising that heritage is inherently political and used by diverse actors as a tool for re-imagining communities, identities, and borders, and for generating notions of inclusion and exclusion in Europe, the book also considers the idea of Europe itself as a narrative. Chapters tackle issues such as multilevel governance of heritage; geopolitics of border-crossings and border-making; participation and non-participation; and embodiment and affective experience of heritage. Creating and Governing Cultural Heritage in the European Union advances heritage studies with an interdisciplinary approach that utilises and combines theories and conceptualizations from critical geopolitics, political studies, EU and European studies, cultural policy research, and cultural studies. As such, the volume will be of interest to scholars and students engaged in the study of heritage, politics, belonging, the EU, ideas and narratives of Europe.
Museot ovat historiallisesti toimineet identiteettien, normien ja valta-asetelmien rakentajina, tulkitsijoina ja muokkaajina. Nykypäivänä museoissa suhtaudutaan kuitenkin usein kriittisesti niiden ...historialliseen rooliin. Yhä useammin museoissa pyritään toimimaan yhteiskunnallisen muutoksen tuottajina ja hyödynnetään toisinaan jopa aktivistisia toimintatapoja. Vaikea kulttuuriperintö, sen herättämät epämukavat tunteet ja niiden käsittelytavat näyttäytyvätkin nykyajan museotyön keskeisimpinä kysymyksinä. Niiden käsittelyyn sisältyy kuitenkin ristiriitoja, jotka voivat herättää epämukavuutta sekä museokävijöissä että museoalan toimijoissa. Heinäkuussa 2023 käynnistynyt nelivuotinen Epämukava museo – Kohti turvallisia, rohkeita tiloja -tutkimushanke syntyi tarpeesta ymmärtää syvemmin museon asemaa vaikeiden aiheiden käsittelijänä analysoimalla erityisesti museovieraiden kokemia epämukavuuden tunteita ja tunteiden aiheutumisen syitä. Vaikka kävijöiden museokokemuksia on tutkittu myös aiemmin, ei museoiden mahdollisuuksista vaikuttaa kävijöiden ajatteluun tiedetä vielä paljoa. Hankkeen tavoitteena on pohtia erityisesti epämukavuuden kokemuksen sisältämää transformatiivista sekä korjaavaa potentiaalia ja museoiden mahdollisuuksia hyödyntää näitä kävijäkokemuksia osana muuttuvaa museotyötä.
By analysing three museums exhibition, this article investigates how the history of European colonialism is approached in an attempt to identify potential for decolonising European minds. The case ...studies consist of a temporary exhibition (2016-2017) concerning German colonialism at the Deutsches Historisches Museum in Berlin; the permanent exhibition of the House of European History in Brussels and the permanent exhibition of the Sagres Promontory (Portugal), a heritage site related to the conquest of the Americas. The analysis will focus on three aspects: 1) acknowledgement of connections between colonial histories and their contemporary influences in and for Europe; 2) the role of historical consciousness when dealing with the history of colonialism and 3) re-narrations of colonial history through enabling new voices. Ultimately this approach involves 'past presencing', in bringing the many connections of Europe's colonial past and postcolonial present together. It is argued, that although museums are increasingly engaging with decolonisation, there exists a need to better include decolonisation of European minds in these processes. Heritage as a future-oriented project and a tool to manage memory can be used to support historical consciousness and imagine a just future.
In contrast to recent reinforcements of Europe's internal and external borders due to the refugee situation on the Mediterranean and the Covid-19 outbreak, talk of European borders has in the past ...decades focused on the freedom of mobility guaranteed by the Schengen treaty. In many senses, free intra-European mobility has become a recited truth in the EU discourse: a phrase that hides under its repetition the gap between its implied content and empirical realities of many of those who are affected by European borders' exclusive tendencies. Through the concept of borderscape, this article focuses on the role that cultural products - especially maps exhibited at heritage sites - have in reciting ideas of European borders. In this context, ideas of European heritage are approached as a bordering practice - as an active process of creating, sustaining and challenging cultural border imaginaries and the many in/exclusion they imply. Empirically the article is focused on the European Heritage Label (EHL), a recent heritage action of the European Union (EU). The article asks what is the relationship between national and European representations of space; how are Europe's external borders represented; and what kind of cultural power hierarchies can be identified behind these representations?
This introduction to the themed section Using our Past, Defining our Futures - Debating Heritage and Culture in Europe summarises the three articles and outlines their approach to heritage. The ...authors all share a vision of heritage as a future-oriented tool for change. Heritage is interpreted as a cultural process that seeks to link past and present, but also aims to influence the future. As our societies evolve over time, the changes in our social values force us to re-evaluate and re-interpret our heritages - to re-determine the boundaries between what we cherish, what we are proud of, and what we regret. From this perspective heritage is not only open to change, but also a process that requires revision. Instead of the preservationist approach that sees heritage as something needing protection, the authors approach it as potent agent for social and political change. Empirically the articles contribute to the active debates on the idea of European culture and heritage by focusing on the relationship between the past and the meanings attached to it in contemporary societies. The authors especially address the practices of meaning-making that are embedded in the ways different aspects of our past are discussed, narrated, and reinterpreted.
The article focuses on difficult heritage associated with three forms of structural violence in European history - the Communist and Nazi regimes and the former European colonies. We scrutinize how ...these three sources of difficult heritage are used in heritage diplomacy in the EU's flagship heritage action, the European Heritage Label (EHL). On the one hand we analyse 'diplomacy' as principles and practices aimed at creating and maintaining peaceful and working relationships between actors both within and beyond the EU. On the other hand, we build on the related adjective 'diplomatic' as a tactful, delicate, and sensitive way of maintaining human relations. Our empirical data consists of interviews conducted at three EHL sites (Historic Gdańsk Shipyard (Poland), Camp Westerbork (the Netherlands) and Sagres Promontory (Portugal). We argue that unlike in the heritage of Communist and Nazi regimes, the potential for societal heritage diplomacy remains largely unrealized for colonial regimes.
Cultural heritage is an expanding yet contested area of EU policymaking, which has recently been identified as an instrument for EU international cultural relations. In this article, drawing from ...critical heritage studies and recent scholarship on heritage diplomacy, we see external and internal cultural relations as blurred and deeply entangled in EU heritage policies. Empirically, we focus on the European Heritage Label (EHL), a central EU heritage policy instrument. We explore how heritage practitioners at selected EHL sites and EU heritage policymakers understand and give meanings to international cultural relations and explain the role of cultural heritage in diplomatic endeavours. Our method is a dynamic frame analysis of 44 interviews conducted in the European Commission and at eleven EHL sites in ten European countries. The analysis identified four frames of international cultural relations in the data: relations with non-EU countries for peace and stability building, showcasing and branding of cultural heritage for foreign audiences, creating unity in Europe, and small-scale international heritage projects. These frames manifest different understandings of heritage diplomacy ranging from geoculture to shared heritage and from intercultural encounters to the use of soft power.
The death of George Floyd in May 2020 sparked a wave of protests across the United States, Europe, and beyond. This chapter investigates the protest in Bristol that lead to the fall of the statue of ...Edward Colston from the perspective of cultural heritage and belonging. I analyze online debates provoked by the protest - both for and against Colston - and compare them to the history of heritagization around Colston. There is a longstanding tension between heritage narratives that positions Colston as a local philanthropist and the more recent viewpoints that highlight his role in the transatlantic slave trade. As the analysis shows, this tension is mirrored both in the ways Colston's name and image have been transcribed to Bristolian landscapes and in the debates that emerged after the statue was forcibly taken down by protesters. In this context, the fall of Colston can be perceived as an attempt to demand public recognition and space for Bristolians, whose belonging had been marginalized by earlier heritage practices around Colston.
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