Abstract
The aim of this conference was to present the research themes of resilience, cultural heritage and community to illustrate the mechanisms of participation. During the conference were also presented a great number of successful examples of participatory processes coming from other international initiatives.
The idea was that, together with the contributions from keynote speakers, we will start an intriguing dialogue about accessing cultural heritage for a wider participation in preservation, (re-)use and management of European culture. The team of 4 researchers from Charles University and 4 associate partners has organized a panel for the plenary meeting of the conference which has presented the pilot which analyses the representations and (re-)valorisation of the small towns cultural heritage.
The pilot focuses in particular on Czech Republic and central Italy, but not only. We presented cases from Finland, Poland, France and Spain and Portugal.
The goal was to prove that the small towns are a distinctive feature of the European settlement and are often per se part of CH: for their architecture, monuments, churches and any other form of CH in public places, as well as for intangible heritage linked to the territory. Despite this, they remain in the shadow of the big cities and metropolis.
Cultural policies based to big cities, shortage of resources, limited capacities and knowledge in small towns and peripheral regions are some of reasons for which this potential is still undervalued, not fully exploited, and often in danger due to lack of investment in conservation, natural disasters in less populated areas, impact of large infrastructural works (dams, tunnels, bridges, etc.).