ABSTRACT
For a number of decades, participation in heritage processes and practices has been increasingly addressed at various levels in cultural heritage policies and research. It has been emphasized that citizens should have a say in decisions about constructing, defining, interpreting, and representing cultural heritage. In this chapter, we analyse the dynamics of participation in the framework of the European Heritage Label and the ways in which it produces both inclusive and exclusive notions of cultural heritage and Europe. We draw on a multidisciplinary theoretical framework related to heritage dissonance and inclusive heritage discourse, the politics of the past, agonistic remembering, and remembrance. Participation is approached here as embedded in the framework of European Union’s participatory governance. Based on a qualitative close reading of the interviews with practitioners and visitors at the selected European Heritage Label sites, we investigate what meanings they attach to participation, how the exhibitions and activities of the sites enable and limit participation, and what roles are given to visitors. We conclude the chapter with remarks on belonging, inclusion, and exclusion implied by the participatory practices of the European Heritage Label sites.
