14438 - Community Involvement and Rights to Heritage Modulübersicht

• Prof. Dr. phil. Adam, Jens

This module enables students to critically examine heritage by developing a comprehensive understanding of different approaches, theoretical perspectives, and academic discourses relating to community involvement in heritage governance, as well as the role of rights and rights-holders within associated processes, contexts, and networks. Students will critically explore concepts of communities, management, and involvement practices that position heritage professionals as intermediaries, enabling them to understand the complexities of heritage governance and to navigate towards more equitable heritage futures. The module familiarises students with heritage-related rights concepts, including potential conflicts and tensions, and equips them to critically analyse existing frameworks and approaches to heritage rights at different spatial and political scales.

By the end of this module, students will be able to:

• critically reflect on key concepts relating to heritage communities, management, rights, and rights-holders, and connect them to broader theoretical frameworks;
• demonstrate familiarity with relevant cultural policies and legislation concerning heritage rights;
• identify heritage exchange processes and methods for working with diverse rights-holders and stakeholders;
• apply methodological and theoretical approaches to understand the complex and processual nature of heritage contexts and heritage management systems;
• demonstrate critical awareness of related rights issues, including Indigenous rights, human rights, conflict, dispossession, and sustainable development;
• understand the complexities involved in the mobilisation of heritage rights discourse;
• analyse existing structures in their historical contexts, relational networks, and broader complexities, assess possible approaches to these areas, and contribute to more sustainable heritage futures;
• discuss and present key concepts relating to community involvement and rights to heritage in accordance with professional academic standards.

Who has rights to which heritage on what basis? Which rights are relevant in relation to heritage, and to whom or what do they apply? Do some forms of heritage or some ‘heritage makers’ and stakeholders have more rights than others? How do we ensure equal rights to heritage? These are some of the central questions to be discussed in this module on community involvement and rights to heritage. The module explores perspectives on heritage by looking at its users and the different rights associated with heritage. Engaging with communities and heritage stakeholders through a rights-based approach means going beyond legal terms to understand local social norms and cosmologies. Through this course, students will delve into the complex intersections between heritage and rights, and examine how rights to heritage are defined, negotiated, and contested by cultural actors and within different communities, institutional frameworks, and academic discourses. Students will critically engage with people-centred and rights-holder approaches to heritage, while also considering the role of non-human actors and more-than-human perspectives. Heritage is influenced by the practitioners involved in its making, by those prevented from involvement, as well as by governing frameworks. This course examines both social heritage practices and the policies regulating them. A special focus will be placed on heritage and communities under threat, the role of heritage during conflict, and the contribution of heritage to more convivial futures. Through case studies, policy analysis, and additional empirical methods, each grounded in specific methodological approaches, the course challenges students to consider whose rights are represented and whose remain marginalised in heritage governance, and how more equitable and inclusive approaches may be fostered.

All Mandatories of first year.

None

• Lecture / 2 Hours per Week per Semester
• Seminar / 2 Hours per Week per Semester
• Self organised studies / 120 Hours

A list of recommended literature will be provided at the beginning of the course.

Critical analysis paper. Students are required to submit an academic paper of 3,000–4,000 words on a topic related to the seminar..

More specific guidelines on each assignement and information on the evaluation criteria will be provided at the beginning of the course.

• Master (research-oriented) / World Heritage Studies / PO 2026

No offer in Winter semester 2026/27.

In the event that the module cannot be taught or tested according to the present description (e.g. for reasons of infection protection), the alternatives communicated on relevant platforms (e.g. homepage or Moodle) apply.

Lectures and seminars

• no assignment