PROJECT DESCRIPTION

The Latvian Academy of Culture implements the research project ‘Community Participation in Cultural Heritage Governance: Practices, Developments and Challenges’ funded by the Latvian Council of Science (2018-2020). The project leader is Prof. Dr. art. Rūta Muktupāvela.

The aim of the research is to evaluate practices, changes and challenges for the participatory governance in cultural heritage (in particular intangible cultural heritage) in Latvia and to explore how community participation affects the formation of new communities and the safeguarding cultural heritage. Researchers will identify how the current legal and institutional framework in Latvia affects the community's participation in the governance of the cultural heritage; what factors determine the differences of participatory forms among intangible cultural heritage communities; whether dominant and alternative cultural heritage governance practices exist, if and how they promote the emergence of new cultural heritage communities and the safeguarding of heritage elements. An interdisciplinary research approach (cultural and cultural heritage studies, legal and policy analysis, community participation studies) will be developed for a comparative study. The assessment of the prospects and challenges of a participatory cultural heritage governance policy will be provided; the formation of new cultural heritage communities will be comparatively assessed and new forms of participation in dominant and alternative governance practice framework will be designed. The main results will be the development of the participatory practices in safeguarding cultural heritage; expanded diversity of cultural heritage elements; improved decision making models of cultural heritage governance.

Funding institution: Latvian Council of Science
Funding number: lzp-2018/2-0280
Acronym: FLPP-2018-2
This research is funded by the Latvian Council of Science, project ‘Community Participation in Cultural Heritage Governance: Practices, Developments and Challenges’, project No. lzp-2018/2-0280

Additional information: Baiba Tjarve, baibatj@gmail.com