Abstract Efforts to make cultural heritage data FAIR have largely focused on expert-driven metadata within formal institutions, often marginalising community-valued heritage. This paper proposes a process-oriented framework for community-driven metadata co-creation aligned with FAIR principles while remaining sensitive to everyday heritage and community expression. The framework introduces a five-stage lifecycle (recording, submission, curation, release, and use/reuse) and repositions heritage institutions as co-authors rather than sole authorities. It is formalised through a metadata model compatible with the Europeana Data Model, supporting multilingual expression, coexistence of community folksonomies with institutional taxonomies, and semantic enrichment. A proof-of-concept survey explores its recording stage, showing that community contributors generate rich, narrative descriptions, while also revealing limitations in metadata completeness. This study provides empirical insight into initial conditions for community-authored metadata, thus contributing to a conceptual foundation for more inclusive participation in the digitisation of cultural heritage and its valorisation outside the scope of formal memory institutions.
Eudave et al. (Thu,) studied this question.