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Paper short abstract

The aim of this paper is to show the process of transforming insignificant past into a significant heritage. Following Jean Lave and Etienne Wenger, I will show how grassroot activists, dealing with local heritage, legitimize peripheral knowledge and transform places where they live.

Paper long abstract

City games, historical walks, community archives and local history museums – polish urban space is full of grassroot initiatives dealing with the past. Local activists operate outside the mainstream of history, like Decerteauian workers, utilizing scraps of material – undiscovered stories, objects found in the trash. From these remnants, they create fertile ground for further action.

The aim of this paper is to show the process of transforming insignificant past into a significant heritage. Following Jean Lave and Etienne Wenger, I will show, how these communities of practices legitimize peripheral knowledge, transforming places where they live. This will follow us to the question about the role of grassroots initiatives in inducing social change by creating a counter-discourse and joining it in to the mainstream.

The process of legitimizing of peripheral meanings resembles a food chain, where different social actors perform different roles. This means that we can see the heritage generated by local activists as cultural capital, which is used, adapted and, sometimes, captured by subsequent actors– the public and commercial sectors. I would like to show how the past changes its meanings during this process.

The question is what is the potential of resistance practices of grassroots initiatives and their role in balancing the polarised world.

The paper bases on a research project „Small museums” by Ari Ari Foundation. In-depth interviews, as well as the participant observation were used as methods.