Debating structural violence in European heritage diplomacy

ABSTRACT

The article focuses on difficult heritage associated with three forms of structural violence in European history – the Communist and Nazi regimes and the former European colonies. We scrutinize how these three sources of difficult heritage are used in heritage diplomacy in the EU’s flagship heritage action, the European Heritage Label (EHL). On the one hand we analyse ‘diplomacy’ as principles and practices aimed at creating and maintaining peaceful and working relationships between actors both within and beyond the EU. On the other hand, we build on the related adjective ‘diplomatic’ as a tactful, delicate, and sensitive way of maintaining human relations. Our empirical data consists of interviews conducted at three EHL sites (Historic Gdańsk Shipyard (Poland), Camp Westerbork (the Netherlands) and Sagres Promontory (Portugal). We argue that unlike in the heritage of Communist and Nazi regimes, the potential for societal heritage diplomacy remains largely unrealized for colonial regimes.

KEYWORDS:

• Heritage diplomacy
• structural violence
• colonialism
• Nazism
• Communism, European Heritage Label

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

The work was supported by the Academy of Finland [330620 EU Heritage Diplomacy and the Dynamics of Inter-Heritage Dialogue].

Notes on contributors

Johanna Turunen

Johanna Turunen (PhD contemporary culture studies, MA history, MSSoc sociology) is a post-doctoral researcher at the Department of Music, Art and Culture Studies, University of Jyväskylä, Finland. Her work focuses on critical heritage studies, coloniality, and identity politics. She has published her work in several journals and edited volumes and is the co-author of Creating and Governing Cultural Heritage in the European Union: The European Heritage Label (Routledge 2020, together with Lähdesmäki, Čeginskas, Kaasik-Krogerus, and Mäkinen).

Sigrid Kaasik-Krogerus

Sigrid Kaasik-Krogerus (DSocSc) works as a lecturer at the Department of Finnish, Finno-Ugrian and Scandinavian Studies, University of Helsinki, Finland. She has published in a number of peer-reviewed journals and co-authored couple of monographs. She is a co-editor of Dissonant Heritages and Memories in Contemporary Europe (Palgrave 2019, with Lähdesmäki, Passerini, and van Huis) and a special issue Contemporary Uses of the Past. Politics of Memory and Oblivion (European Politics and Society 2020, with Čeginskas, and Sääskilahti).