Event series: Cambridge Heritage Seminars
Event Speaker: Dr Andreas Pantazatos (University of Cambridge)
Online via Zoom! Registration required - click here
Taxonomies of Difficult Heritage
Dissonant heritage and its consequences in heritage-making shape the debate about the politics of past and the challenges of heritage management. Tunbridge's and Ashworth's claim that 'all heritage is dissonant' inspired numerous publications with similar ideas such as difficult, negative, uninherited and unwanted heritage. A common thread among these ideas is the lack of an explanatory framework, which helps us understand the difference between them. In this paper, I defend the claim that it is necessary to offer a theoretical framework which explicates the differences between these ideas, if we aim to understand how and why different stakeholders are excluded from the interpretation of their heritage. By addressing a new distinction between dissonant and incongruous heritage, I argue that the differences between different kinds of heritage dissonance, broadly construed, are differences of epistemic and ethical values. To illustrate my argument, I draw upon my research in the North East of England and the Dodecanese Islands in Greece.