How to stop the social death of cultural heritage? Cultural heritage education: an emerging field.

Abstract

This article analyzes the processes of appropriation of cultural heritage and the evaluation of such processes in daily life. In this sense, cultural heritage consists of spaces to social interaction, capable of representing the memory and identity of a community and citizens. However, it can be noticed that every passing day these spaces are losing any meaning to people living there and are also being forgotten. It is at this point when the social death of cultural heritage is declared, and its main role becomes an economic activity, and even worse, it is perceived as a handicap in dwellers’ lives, its patrimonial value being important only to experts. For this reason, it is necessary to generate educational processes of social reappropriation in which citizens reinforce symbolic values and change the uses and meanings of cultural heritage assets in daily life. Cultural heritage education is a way to construct cognitive and emotional bonds with cultural heritage, to encourage the involvement of local communities in the appreciation of material and immaterial heritage.