ABSTRACT
The first part of the book addresses how belonging becomes redefined and negotiated by active interventions in public space. It focuses on drawing out the interplay between institutional or authorized practices and discourses around defining belonging – connected to heritage, memory, culture, and urban space – and on-the-ground interventions or reappropriations intended to enable a renegotiation of belonging to fit contemporary, diverse societies. The chapters explore how new museum practices, discourses, architectural mediation, and funding schemes impact the development of new spaces of belonging. The different chapters address questions including: what does it mean to create spaces and places of belonging in Europe, to intervene in existing socio-political landscapes of belonging or alienation, and what are the effects of such interventions? By focusing on a diversity of settings and actors, the authors expose the complexities and challenges, but also the potential of active interventions in public spaces both for instigating new forms and developing broader understandings of belonging.
