Contribution short abstract:

An expanding area of policymaking in the European Union (EU), cultural heritage has also been connected to EU's aims in cultural diplomacy. This presentation critically explores how EU's heritage policy discourses reflect and construct EU's contemporary power relations and priorities.

Contribution long abstract:

Cultural heritage is an expanding yet contested area of contemporary policymaking in the European Union (EU). Recently ist has been identified in EU's foreign policy as a tool for cultural diplomacy. This is a potentially contradictory policy development. First, while cultural heritage has been used to demonstrate commitment to specific norms and values, such as democracy, human rights and the rule of law, research has shown that ideas about cultural heritage and its effects as a policy tool remain vague. Secondly, although different policy documents declare that EU activity in the 'cultural domain' will advance EU's global engagement and external relations, heritage as a foreign policy tool can simultaneously enforce existing power relations and interpretations of the past leading to accusations of Eurocentrism and neo-imperialist attitudes both within and beyond Europe. Through an analysis of EU policy documents and extensive fieldwork material from the European Heritage Label, a prominent EU heritage action, this presentation explores how EU's heritage policy discourses reflect and communicate EU's contemporary geopolitical power relations and priorities. We especially examine the contradiction at the heart of using cultural heritage for foreign policy objectives and ask how a cultural phenomenon that has traditionally been used to construct ideas of national exceptionalism and unique European civilization can be utilized to stimulate dialogue and positive cultural interaction that would enable new non-hegemonic approaches to cultural power relations.