Unwanted inheritance? Industrial past as the EU heritage

ABSTRACT

Historically speaking, industry has been perceived as a threat to historical preservation and heritage in general; and for this reason, these categories have been seen as mutually exclusive. However, since the decline of industry in Europe, the relation between the two has been gradually reconsidered. The European Union (EU) has engaged with the industrial heritage, even if not wholeheartedly. The reason, I argue, is the reluctance among the Member States and the broader European public to recognise industrial heritage as a legitimate part of the European heritage. There are, however, very good reasons to fully embrace this past – not only because the EU’s deeply entrenched in the industry, but also because it can allow the broader public to embrace a transnational understanding of European history.

KEYWORDS:

• Identity
• heritage
• industrial heritage
• historic preservation
• EU

Acknowledgments

This work was supported by the Balzan Prize and is a part of the Reconstructing Memory in the City – Transnational and Local (European) Sites of Memory research project at the University of Konstanz. I would like to thank Suzan Meryem Rosita (University of Oxford) for her insightful comments, which helped improve this paper.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Fondazione Internazionale Premio Balzan [2017 Balzan Prize (for Aleida Assmann and Jan Assmann)];

Notes on contributors

Piotr Kisiel

Piotr Kisiel is a Balzan Prize research fellow at the University of Konstanz. His academic work focuses on urban history and nationalism. He holds magister degrees in Law and in History from the Jagiellonian University in Cracow and a MA (First Class Honours) in History from the University of Dundee. His PhD thesis from the European University Institute in Florence has been published by the Herder Institute in Marburg. https://uni-konstanz.academia.edu/PiotrKisiel