Paper short abstract:

In this presentation I aim to critically examine the ideal of democratising research practices in heritage research by asking what happens if we empower participants who express totalitarian and anti-democratic world views.

Paper long abstract:

In this presentation I aim to critically examine the ideal of democratising research practices in heritage research by asking what happens if we empower participants who express totalitarian and anti-democratic world views. I will do so by shedding light on my collaboration with heritage clubs in an Austrian Alpine community that that see the preservation of the populations’ “natural” or “indigenous” cultural ties as their core task. Whilst aiming to preserve traditions, many of these clubs carry a strong exclusionary undertone: They aim to defend blood and soil from the socio-cultural infiltration of outsiders or from the spread of cosmopolitan ideals threatening to destroy their cultural ties. In my presentation I want to look at the socio-cultural genealogies of these exclusionary engagements with the past and pick up the panels’ question in how far working with difficult or “unruly” ideas of heritage might force researchers to rethink ideas of voice and participation.