The Changing Contribution of Cultural Heritage to Society

Increasingly diverse and multi‐cultural societies in Europe make it necessary for the heritage sector to reconsider some of its most fundamental assumptions. Familiar notions of heritage that relate to national pasts and aim at reinforcing the citizens’ common collective identity are unsustainable when significant parts of the population have immigrated over the past few decades, as is the case in many parts of contemporary Europe and indeed elsewhere. National heritage is no longer able to unite increasingly diverse populations. This paper briefly reviews alternative roles that heritage might play in European societies.