Paper short abstract:

Introducing case studies from Iceland, the paper analyses whether and how heritage institutions have succeeded or failed to facilitate community dialog regarding urban heritage and its safeguarding. The research combines legal analysis with critical heritage studies using ethnographic approaches.

Paper long abstract:

Who is willing to break the rules? When are they willing to break the rules? When human remnants were removed from an ancient cemetery, unused since 1839, to be carefully preserved at the National Museum available for research and exhibition, in order to make room for a luxury hotel, a group of protesters demanding sanctuary for the deceased were willing to put the rules to the test. Others were willing to test the rules when faced with the prospect of fewer parking spots. The paper introduces an ongoing doctoral research project examining democratic participation in the safeguarding of cultural heritage, with emphasis on the urban environment. The project analyses the legal framework around cultural heritage as well as the approaches that authorities take to identify and interpret cultural heritage and its safeguarding. Two different cases from Iceland are examined through in-depth interviews, open-ended questionnaires and observational fieldwork. By identifying the different stakes involved and discursive styles that people adopt, the study examines power relations and struggles between authorities and other stakeholders, questioning how participation can be facilitated by authorities in relation to urban heritage. The paper examines whether the legislator has defined the term "stakeholder" too narrowly, thus excluding various groups and individuals who may identify with the heritage in question, creating a structural deficit in the democratic dialog it (cl)aimed to establish. Consequently, the paper discusses how heritage institutions have succeeded or failed to facilitate community dialog in the aftermath of the participative turn.