From war to value. How local communities can valorize their cultural heritage of war within a European Framework

This project will show how local communities in Europe can valorize their cultural heritage of war. On the one hand, it will stimulate and frame a European network for experts, stakeholders and local communities for sharing their strategies for coping with the past. On the other hand, by addressing the local level this network will simultaneously stimulate a new, more balanced perspective on the European heritage of war. To reach these goals we follow four dimensions of valorization on the local level: Identity, Reconciliation, Education and Economic Performance, each with two case studies. With 8 case regions spreading out all over Europe, we will provide a starting point for a European network that examines local heritage practices and coping strategies. We will give references for how this network can expand all over Europe and will align this with different kinds of (digital) applications and planning tools to make a perpetual development possible. Based on this starting initiative, the network will encourage all kinds of other initiatives (communities, development agencies, schools, museums, private stakeholders etc.) to setup and promote war heritage projects on their own - and thereby expanding the network in a bottom-up approach. All this picks up aspects of the call concerning the role that cultural heritage of war plays in local identities and how practices and narratives might establish the foundation of European identities. We will offer a “valorization in an inclusive European perspective” in order to convey a European memory of war that focuses on the local diversity of war heritage.