ABSTRACT
This chapter explores the opportunities and challenges of participatory heritage governance when it is put into practice and its goals and implementation are managed at the grassroots level. The chapter's empirical case study focuses on the Seminaarinmäki Campus in Finland. This tangible site, with its intangible heritage of equal education, was awarded the European Heritage Label (EHL) in 2022. As the European Union's (EU) heritage award, the EHL is based on a participatory approach to heritage, requiring labelled sites to involve different communities and stakeholders in their heritage processes. Drawing on three sets of data – observation of the preparation of the EHL proposal, an autoethnographic diary of the development of the campus as an EHL site, and 16 interviews with eight focus groups – the chapter describes how the EHL enabled stakeholders to see their everyday work as promoting the cultural heritage of the campus, but also discusses various challenges caused by internalised managerial hierarchy in heritage work and different conceptions of heritage and participation. The chapter emphasises that participatory heritage governance requires competent bodies managing the sites through planned coordination, facilitation, and participatory methods, and adequate resources for such activities.
