Cause-Based Participative Relationships in Heritage Management

Abstract

A shift from activities under the exclusive responsibility of institutions and experts to those organized and carried out by a growing number of civil society organizations and heritage communities has been seen as a means of democratizing heritage practice. This paper explores an NGO-run project of the Trešnjevka Neighborhood Museum in Zagreb, Croatia in order to expound characteristics of its participative management model, which includes other NGOs, representatives of a museum institution, and neighborhood residents. The museum’s activities published on the official website and social media platforms were thematically analyzed according to layers of cultural participation. The results show a formation of a community of interests within a place-based community whose purpose is to represent heritage values alternative to those of the mainstream institutions. The TNM can therefore be described as a territorialized cause-based project whose management is predicated on value-based participation of different stockholders, while its heritage governance approach resembles both corporatist and service-led approaches.