Unlearning narratives of privilege: A decolonial reading of the European Heritage Label

Abstract

Cultural heritage has become a vital policy field for the European Union (EU). It has particularly been identified as a tool for identity politics – as a way to promote European belonging and intercultural dialogue. As the EU’s interests towards heritage have grown throughout the years, its authorised heritage discourse (the EU-AHD) and the values it seeks to promote have taken an equally prominent role. This thesis examines the relationship between the EU-AHD and its associated cultural archive from the viewpoint of colonial and imperial legacies. As such, the focus is not only on colonial heritage but also on the multitudes of ways different values, preconceptions, discourses, stereotypes, and ideological remnants stemming from colonial mentalities have been engraved in European mindsets. Consequently, this thesis seeks to identify existing structures and unearth ways the ‘European mind’ could be decolonised. Combining critical heritage studies with post-, and decolonial theory this thesis scrutinises the European Heritage Label (EHL) – a European Union heritage action founded in 2011. The EHL aims to tell a story of Europe and the values it seeks to represents. It is focused on the symbolic and narrative aspects of heritage and their potential for constructing a community of EU citizens or EUropeans. As argued in the thesis, an element of ‘affective inequality’ can be identified within the EU-AHD and the ways it engages different histories and memories. This inequality is structured around Eurocentric ideals and coloniality, and it manifests in Europe’s external as well as internal relations. It influences particularly the ways different communities are narrated through EUropean heritage: between those who are represented through mere facts and those whose past is expressed through memories, empathy and engagement. This division significantly contributes to narratives of EUropean diversity defined primarily around whiteness and the diversity of European nation states and the need to either assimilate – and thereby depoliticise – or exclude all elements that would contradict this narrative. To counter this dynamic the thesis investigates the prospects of unlearning racial and cultural hierarchies and the ways they manifest in harmful practices and attitudes.