Constructing social Europe through European cultural heritage
Abstract
The political and economic crises of the recent decades as well as the new changes brought on by globalization and digitalization have contributed to exacerbate social inequalities and injustice and revealed different social realities in Europe. The EU increasingly deals with social issues in its cultural and heritage policy. In this article, we explore the construction of this social dimension and advance the concept of ‘social Europe’ by exploring its cultural aspect based on our analysis of a recent EU heritage action, the European Heritage Label. In this action, the narrations of the European past and the attempts to foster common cultural heritage in Europe function as building blocks to create Europe as an intertwined cultural and social entity and to socialize a new generation of European citizens. We scrutinize the European Heritage Label and its notion of heritage from two perspectives. First, we analyse how the selection reports of these heritage sites construct a notion of social Europe. Second, we examine how visitors to these sites construct social Europe in their qualitative interviews. Key elements in this construction are narratives related to various values, mobility, and diversity.
Main Authors
Format
Articles
Research article
Published
2021
Series
Subjects
Publication in research information system
Publisher
Routledge
The permanent address of the publication
https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:jyu-202104192418Use this for linking
Review status
Peer reviewed
ISSN
1461-6696
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1080/14616696.2021.1913508
Language
English
Published in
European Societies
Citation
- Čeginskas, V. L., Kaasik-Krogerus, S., Lähdesmäki, T., & Mäkinen, K. (2021). Constructing social Europe through European cultural heritage. European Societies, 23(4), 487-512. https://doi.org/10.1080/14616696.2021.1913508
Funder(s)
Research Council of Finland
European Commission
Funding program(s)
Academy Project, AoF
ERC Starting Grant
Akatemiahanke, SA
ERC Starting Grant
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Funded by the European Union. Views and opinions expressed are however those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or the European Education and Culture Executive Agency (EACEA). Neither the European Union nor EACEA can be held responsible for them.
Additional information about funding
This work was supported by Academy of Finland [grant number 330602 (HERIDI)]
and H2020 European Research Council [grant number 636177 (EUROHERIT)].
Copyright© 2021 The Author(s). Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.