Coming to grips with diverse voices in participatory heritage initiatives

Community participation is increasingly advocated as a promising approach to cultural heritage management. One of the main justifications for doing so is to challenge the authorized heritage discourse and further multivocality. However, regarding the approach of “community participation”, many issues are yet to be addressed. This project tackles one of the main issues faced by participatory heritage initiatives. That is, with the presence of diverse voices about heritage in a so-called community, how does the community deal with the multivocal reality? This project explores this question by drawing on various examples from three Italian communities - Mesagne and Latiano from the southern Italian region of Apulia, and the neighbourhood of Testaccio in the historic centre of Rome.