European Heritage, Dialogue and Digital Practices

Abstract

European Heritage, Dialogue and Digital Practices focuses on the intersection of heritage, dialogue and digital culture in the context of Europe. Responding to the increased emphasis on the potential for heritage and digital technologies to foster dialogue and engender communitarian identities in Europe, the book explores what kind of role digital tools, platforms and practices play in supporting and challenging dialogue about heritage in the region. Drawing on fieldwork involving several European museums and heritage organisations, the chapters in this volume critically engage with the role of digital technology in heritage work and its association with ideas of democratisation, multivocality and possibilities for feedback and dialogic engagement in the emerging digital public sphere. The book also provides a framework for understanding dialogue in relation to other commonly used approaches in heritage institutions, such as participation, engagement and intercultural exchange. The authors map out the complex landscape of digitally mediated heritage practices in Europe, both official and unofficial, by capturing three distinct areas of practice: perceptions and applications of digitally mediated dialogues around heritage within European museums and cultural policy, facilitation of dialogue between European museums and communities through participatory design approaches and non-official mobilisation of heritage on social media. European Heritage, Dialogue and Digital Practices will be of interest to both scholars and students in the fields of heritage and museum studies, digital heritage, media studies and communication, the digital humanities, sociology and memory studies. The book will also appeal to policy makers and professionals working in a variety of fields. Areti Galani is a Senior Lecturer in Media, Culture, Heritage at Newcastle University, UK, specialising in digital cultural heritage. She works with peoplecentred methodologies and research-through-design approaches to explore the role of digital technologies in heritage contexts, on-site and online. She has published on issues related to empathy, reflexivity and sociality in designing and evaluating [digitally mediated] heritage experiences. Rhiannon Mason is a Professor of Heritage and Cultural Studies and the head of the School of Arts and Cultures in Newcastle University, UK. Her research and teaching are focused on heritage, identity and nationalism, and she has published extensively around these topics as well as issues of emotion, memory and migration.

An Ontology of Semiotic Activity and Epistemic Figuration of Heritage, Memory and Identity Practices on Social Network Sites

“…Dialogue epitomizes the shift from a dissemination model of communication (one-to-many) to a networked one (many-to-many), as the feature of interpretative and interactive approaches oriented toward in three dimensions of (a) polyvocality, (b) civic listening and (c) the tension between institutional and online spaces for dialogue (Arrigoni & Galani, 2019;Galani, Markham, & Mason, 2020). In addition, sometimes the notion of dialogue is developed in the line of thinking described as ''philosophy of dialogue'' or ''dialogue philosophy,'' based on the works of MARTIN BUBER, LEVINAS, BAKHTIN, and LØGSTRUP (Galani, Mason, & Arrigoni, 2020;Illman, 2011).…”

“…In some areas they converge, while in others they stand in dialectical tension. Convergence may be spotted in the concept of public defined, following SONIA LIVINGSTONE, as ''a collection of people who may not all know each other but share ''a common understanding of the world, a shared identity, a claim to inclusiveness, a consensus regarding the collective interest'' (Boyd, 2007, p. 125;Livingstone, 2005, p. 9), and related concepts such as BENEDICT ANDERSON's IMAGINED COMMUNITIES (Bosch, 2020;Budge & Burness, 2018;de Smale, 2020;Galani, Mason, & Arrigoni, 2020;Kozachenko, 2019;Rutten et al, 2013;Staiff, 2010;Tzanelli, 2017;Wells, 2016;Whigham et al, 2019), ZIZI PAPACHARISSI's notion of AFFECTIVE PUBLICS, and concepts of HYBRID SPACE, NETWORKED PUBLICS, and VIRTUAL COMMUNITIES (Bosch, 2020). Other shared concepts include REMEMBERING, COLLECTIVE ACTION or MEMORY, COLLECTIVE REMEMBRANCE or PARTICIPATION.…”