Neal - Heritage and participation
Neal, C. (2015). Heritage and participation. In Waterton, E., Watson, S. (eds) The Palgrave Handbook of Contemporary Heritage Research, (346-365). London: Palgrave Macmillan UK.
‘Participation’ within the heritage arena is generally considered to mean the active involvement of stakeholders within a range of processes and projects. However, it is critical that we recognize more implicit uses of the term, through which ‘public participation’ also comes to perform as a governance instrument by which individual behaviour is shaped and directed by governmental policy and associated institutions. While this type of participation can be seen across other sectors and not just within heritage discourse and activity, its occurrence here is remarkable for its pervasiveness and influence. For example, when explicitly considering participation within heritage, the most obvious foci of activity are within ‘leisure activities’, including arts, music, archives, museology and performance, although the nature of a broadly constituted heritage means that it may go on in everyday interactions and experiences, in ways that are hard to observe, recognize and measure.
Cath Neal “Heritage and participation”