“Community Heritage” is front and centre of many new heritage strategies and visitor attractions in Scotland, and yet it is largely managed by volunteers and lacks definition as a sector in its own right. Over the past two years, the Museums, Galleries and Collections Institute (MGCI) at the University of St Andrews has worked in partnership with a number of organisations and grass-roots initiatives to better understand the community heritage landscape of Scotland – its characteristics, current needs and potentialities. This international conference is the culmination of a research workshops project funded by the Royal Society of Edinburgh and led by MGCI, the National Library of Scotland and Ergadia Heritage, seeking to understand the current needs and future aspirations of the Scottish community heritage sector. In association with the newly-formed Scottish Community Heritage Alliance we have consulted people at a local level as to whether they see a need for a new national network and if so, what form it might take.* The conference further seeks to bring the Scottish reality into the light of international discourse affecting critical heritage studies today, including concepts of ‘authorised’ heritage, intangible cultural heritage, the role of youth and intergenerational transmission of knowledge, local development agendas, and social sustainability and wellbeing in the face of climate change and austerity.
Read the Proceedings from the International Conference on Community Heritage University of St Andrews, Scotland, Friday 8th November 2019
