Overview

Cultural and natural heritage are central to 'Europe' and 'the European project'. They were bound up in the emergence of nation-states in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, where they were used to justify differences over which border conflicts were fought. Later, the idea of a 'common European heritage' provided a rationale for the development of the European Union. Now, the emergence of 'new' populist nationalisms shows how the imagined past continues to play a role in cultural and social governance, while a series of interlinked social and ecological crises are changing the ways that heritage operates. New discourses and ontologies are emerging to reconfigure heritage for the circumstances of the present and the uncertainties of the future. Taking the current role of heritage in Europe as its starting point, Critical Heritage Studies and the Futures of Europe presents a number of case studies that explore key themes in this transformation. Contributors draw on a range of disciplinary perspectives to consider, variously, the role of heritage and museums in the migration and climate 'emergencies'; approaches to urban heritage conservation and practices of curating cities; digital and digitised heritage; the use of heritage as a therapeutic resource; and critical approaches to heritage and its management. Taken together, the chapters explore the multiple ontologies through which cultural and natural heritage have actively intervened in redrawing the futures of Europe and the world. Praise for Critical Heritage Studies and the Futures of Europe 'Filled with many fascinating and diverse chapters, this book vividly demonstrates the dynamism and breadth of critical heritage study of, in, and entangled with Europe today' Sharon Macdonald, Alexander von Humboldt Professor of Social Anthropology and Director of the Centre for Anthropological Research on Museums and Heritage (CARMAH) in the Institute of European Ethnology at Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin. 'Far from being restrictive, let alone chauvinistic, the multiscalar European focus of this book confirms the breadth and relevance of current critical heritage studies. With contributions addressing such topical issues as climate emergencies, urban landscapes, cultural industries, new media and identity politics - be they written by established scholars or by emerging researchers - it is ""Europe"" with all its shared grounds and recurrent divergences that comes into sharper relief. From this vantage point, readers of this compelling book will be better positioned for reflecting on and eventually influencing and challenging our heritage futures.' Nathan Schlanger, Professor of Archaeology, École nationale des chartes, Paris. 'This book addresses European heritage realities and futures through new voices, paradigms, and methods. It is a collage of tensions - practically a representation of Europe itself - through which to comprehend contemporary intersections of time, place, things, and meaning. It contributes to new vistas in heritage studies: the offer of design and imagination as methods; reckonings with data and climate change as seemingly uncontrollable actors; and the ongoing negotiation of ""criticality"" in the making of our responsibilities for the past in the present' Christopher Whitehead, Professor of Museology, Newcastle University.

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Rodney Harrison is Professor of Heritage Studies at the UCL Institute of Archaeology. He is author of many some of which have been translated into Chinese, Italian, Polish and Portuguese language versions. His research has been funded by AHRC, UKRI/Global Challenges Research Fund, British Academy, Wenner-Gren Foundation, Australian Research Council, Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies and the European Commission. He has conducted archaeological, anthropological and/or archival research in Australia, Southeast Asia, North America, South America, the Middle East, UK and continental Europe. Nélia Dias is Associate Professor at the University Institute of Lisbon, Centre for Research in Anthropology. She works in the fields of heritage, museum studies, the history of anthropology and of human sciences from the early 19th century to the present. Her research has been supported by the Fondation de la Maison des Sciences de l’Homme, Max Planck Institute for the History of Science, Center for French History and Culture, Australian Research Council and the Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia. Kristian Kristiansen is Professor of Archaeology at University of Gothenburg, and affiliated professor at Copenhagen University. His research spans from the prehistory of western Eurasia to critical heritage. He was one of the initiators of the European Association of Archaeologists, and is now working mainly within the new interdisciplinary field of archaeogenetic research, and its implications for both prehistory and the present. He has published 25 books, as author, co-author and editor/co-editor, six of which are on Cambridge University Press, and more than 150 peer reviewed papers.

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