Since the 2003 UNESCO Convention, cultural heritage policies have promoted diversity and grassroots participation. Deborah Sielert explores how these global discourses do and do not unfold in three small towns in northern Germany, where Portuguese, Dutch, and East Frisian minorities have shaped the cultural sphere since the 1990s – despite the absence of official heritage frameworks. Through a comparative multi-sited study, the research traces how local actors engage with symbolic boundary-making in ethnicised festivals and associations, and how global heritage regimes inform these endeavours. This study offers a fresh sociological lens on the interplay between local sensemaking and the worldmaking power of heritage discourse.
1. Introduction – Cultural Heritage is a Concept We Cannot Do Away WithPages 13 - 30 Download chapter (PDF)
PART I: From Global Cultural Policy to the Three Small‐Town Arena Case StudiesPages 31 - 78 Download chapter (PDF)
Part II: Ethnicised Heritage Situations as a Hands‐on Model to Study Pluralised HeritagisationPages 79 - 131 Download chapter (PDF)
PART III: Worldmaking of Heritage Regimes in Ethnicised Heritage Situations and the (Dis)Contents of Heritage as a Cultural RepertoirePages 133 - 175 Download chapter (PDF)
Part IV: Unsettelling Ethnic, Migrant and Unilocal Heritage: Following Symbolic Boundary Making in Sensemaking ProcessesPages 177 - 237 Download chapter (PDF)
