What does it mean today to build heritage in areas marked by multiple memories, fragility and new forms of civic participation? What are the advantages, risks and paradoxes of participation? What is the most effective position for researchers in this process? This volume attempts to answer these and other questions by presenting the results of the transdisciplinary research project Patrimonio partecipato. Costruire, scoprire e raccontare il patrimonio culturale con le persone (Participatory Heritage: Building, Discovering and Narrating Cultural Heritage with People), conducted by the University of Perugia and dedicated to exploring how citizens can actively contribute to the definition, interpretation and transmission of cultural heritage in the territories of Perugia, Spoleto and Valnerina. By viewing cultural heritage in terms of process rather than fact, the research has triggered a wide range of actions in the field, with the aim of giving a voice and expression to those who do not usually exercise it. Autobiographical narratives, interviews on the go, workshops in museums and libraries, multimodal listening and representation practices, collections of words and impressions, and geostorytelling devices have thus involved thousands of people — students of all levels, adults, seniors, museum operators, librarians, trainers, prisoners — together with a vast network of institutional, cultural, educational and social entities, generating heterogeneous materials that now converge in a book that is intended to be open and continuously under discussion. From the transformations of the concept of cultural heritage to issues related to participation and cultural rights, from the interpretation of territories as organisms in motion to the restitution of adopted practices and methodological choices, from the role of storytelling to that of literature and visual art in promoting heritage-making processes, a cartography of voices, places and representations takes shape, revealing how heritage can become, first and foremost, an opportunity for dialogue, mutual care and civic imagination. Aimed at those working in the fields of culture, education, research, local policy and active citizenship, the book offers tools, perspectives and practical guidance for rethinking the relationship between communities and heritage, in the belief that these only truly exist when they are discussed, shared and recirculated by the people who experience them.

This book is included in DOAB.