Diversity of Belonging in Europe

<p>Diversity of Belonging in Europe analyzes conflicting notions of identity and</p><p>belonging in contemporary Europe. Addressing the creation negotiation and (re)</p><p>use of diverse spaces and places of belonging the book examines their fascinating</p><p>complexities in the context of a changing Europe.</p><p>Taking an innovative interdisciplinary approach the volume examines</p><p>renegotiations of belonging played out through cultural encounters with difference</p><p>and change in diverse public spaces and contested places. Highlighting the</p><p>interconnections between social change and culture heritage and memory the</p><p>chapters analyze multilayered public spaces and the negotiations over culture and</p><p>belonging that are connected to them. Through analyses of diverse case studies the</p><p>editors and authors draw out the significance of the participation or exclusion of</p><p>differing community grassroots and activist groups in such practices and discourses</p><p>of belonging in relation to the contemporary emergence of identity conflicts and</p><p>political uses of the past across Europe. They analyze the ways in which people’s</p><p>sense of belonging is connected to cultural heritage and memory practices</p><p>undertaken in different public spaces including museums cultural and community</p><p>centres city monuments and built heritage neglected urban spaces and online fora.</p><p>Diversity of Belonging in Europe provides a valuable contribution to the</p><p>existing bodies of work on identities migration public space memory and</p><p>heritage. The book will be of interest to scholars and students with an interest in</p><p>contested belonging public spaces and the role of culture and heritage.</p><p>Susannah Eckersley is Senior Lecturer at Newcastle University UK an</p><p>Associated Research Fellow at the Leibniz Centre for Contemporary History</p><p>(ZZF) in Potsdam Germany and the Project Leader of <i>en/counter/points </i>– a</p><p>collaborative European research project on public spaces and belonging funded</p><p>by HERA. Her expertise is in memory museums difficult heritage migration</p><p>identities and belonging.</p><p>Claske Vos is an anthropologist and Assistant Professor in the Department of</p><p>European Studies at the Humanities Faculty of the University of Amsterdam the</p><p>Netherlands. Her current work focuses on the intersection of EU funding cultural</p><p>activism and enlargement. Her expertise is in European cultural policy cultural</p><p>heritage Southeast Europe and European identity formation.</p>