Coming to grips with diverse voices in participatory heritage initiatives

Abstract

Community participation is increasingly advocated as a promising approach to cultural heritage management. One of the main justifications for doing so is to challenge the authorized heritage discourse and further multivocality. However, regarding the approach of “community participation”, many issues are yet to be addressed. This project tackles one of the main issues faced by participatory heritage initiatives. That is, with the presence of diverse voices about heritage in a so-called community, how does the community deal with the multivocal reality? This project explores this question by drawing on various examples from three Italian communities - Mesagne and Latiano from the southern Italian region of Apulia, and the neighbourhood of Testaccio in the historic centre of Rome.

Mapping Urban Heritage Images With Social Media Data and Artificial Intelligence, a Case Study in Testaccio, Rome

“…Among the six OUV selection criteria for cultural heritage, Rome is justified with five of them, including a large variety of heritage values and attributes (Tarrafa Silva et al, 2010, Veldpaus, 2015: Criterion (i) about its artistic/architectural masterpiece, Criterion (ii) about its decisive influence, Criterion (iii) about the archaeological testimony of the civilization, Criterion (iv) about its architectural/monumental typologies, and Criterion (vi) about religious and cultural associations. In Testaccio, specifically, the archaeological excavations and built heritage of great chronological and typological diversity make up the typical urban character of the area (Segarra Lagunes, 2004, De Kleijn et al, 2013, Pica et al, 2016, Burgers et al, 2018, Zheng 2023, including but not limited to Pyramid of Cestius (18 BC), Aurelian Wall (3rd century AD), the Tiber River, Monte Testaccio with winemaker's warehouses (which currently hosts several night-life avenues), the Non-Catholic Cemetery (where, among others, the English romantic poets, John Keats and Percy Bysshe Shelley rest), Commonwealth War Cemetery, and Mattatoio Slaughterhouse (which is currently part of the campus of Roma Tre University). An overview of the major attractions of the area including the boundary of UNESCO World Heritage property is shown in Figure 1 with QGIS (QGIS Development Team, 2023), where the context is drawn based on the OpenStreetMap (Haklay et al, 2008).…”

“…These factors call for careful consideration at the early stage of planning and emphasize the need for integrated research and mixed analysis methods combining qualitative and quantitative knowledge. Social media may be helpful for setting the stage for planning through an initial data capture, but its limitations should also be balanced with other methods of data collection and analyses as well as cross-sectoral integration of different data sources, such as interviews, surveys, observations, and participatory workshops (Zheng, 2023).…”