European Heritages and Identities: Shaping Sustainable Communities

Dear Colleagues,

Cultural traditions, being part of cultural heritages, are significant factors that shape local, regional, national, and European identities. From the late 1950s, Bausinger (1961) and others have turned the ethnological searchlight from the disappearing world of the European folk as the guardians of tradition and heritage towards contemporary and emerging cultural forms and expressions. Among other factors, demographic transformation through international migration and aging established populations, the commercialization and commodification of traditional lifestyle elements in the course of globalization, and IT developments, including social media, have affected the continuity of traditions. The ‘heritage boom’ from the 1980s onwards has raised awareness of the importance of cultural resources in a broad sense, although much of this has shared the intuition of a ‘salvage ethnology’ concerned solely with the preservation of heritage practices (Kockel 2002). Meanwhile, in many European countries, cultural communities and policymakers look for policy strategies and measures to develop cultural traditions, safeguard intangible cultural heritages (ICH), and ensure their sustainability for future generations (Nic Craith, Kockel, and Lloyd 2019). Beyond this, there has been growing interest in the development of sustainable ‘heritage futures’ (Nic Craith and Kockel 2002; see also Holtorf and Högberg 2013), that is, new forms and expressions of tradition and heritage. The capacity of what the ethnologist Hamish Henderson called the ‘carrying stream’ (see Bort 2012) of tradition, to sustain and regenerate cultural heritages, arguably rests as much in its innovative power as it does in its potential for conservation (Kockel 2008).

Contributions to this Special Issue will examine the different factors influencing the sustainable development of heritage at different levels and trace underlying common structures. Focusing on case studies of selected regions and cultural groups across Europe and beyond, they explore increasingly interconnected heritages and provide examples of heritage-making that simultaneously look backward and forward, at the same time addressing the complexities of contemporary European heritage from different theoretical positions addressing issues of sustainability.

We are particularly keen to encourage contributions on the following topics:

• The creation of sustainable communities through the development of heritage identities
• The impact of public agencies such as UNESCO, Europa Nostra, and research programs such as Horizon 2020, on the shaping of approaches to sustainable heritage management
• Classifications such as “European” and “non-European” for sustainable heritage communities
• The hidden heritage of colonialism and its role in sustainability
• The sustainability of the “unity in diversity” vision of Europe in the light of rising populism
• The sustainability of heritages in borderlands and ethnic frontiers, and on the geographical margins of “Europe”
• The impact of Covid-19 and post-pandemic conditions on European cultures and the sustainability of heritage practices
• Case-studies exploring the potential of degrowth and de-urbanization to bring about sustainable rural communities in an age shaped by transnationalism

Prof. Dr. Máiréad Nic Craith
Prof. Dr. Ullrich Kockel
Guest Editors

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• sustainability
• globalization
• diaspora
• UNESCO
• safeguarding
• innovation
• cultural resources
• creative industries
• heritage futures