Context 155 - July 2018

C O N T E X T 1 5 5 : J U L Y 2 0 1 8 27 Theory and practice are inherently inferior to those of professionals and that volunteers require professionals to facilitate upskilling, empowering and capac- ity building. It is in this context that Caitlin DeSilvey’s recent book, Curated Decay , is especially significant for participatory heritage practice. Through concepts like ‘palliative cura- tion’, which actively reject the idea that heritage is endangered, DeSilvey attempts to legitimise a range of alternative ways of caring for heritage that move understandings of heritage away from tangible remains and conservation beyond arresting physical change. In doing so, she alludes to how different definitions of heritage can create new participatory dynamics, in which volunteers need not be cast as less capable or a necessary stop-gap. Most participatory heritage projects that facili- tate public participation in caring for heritage do not propose new definitions of heritage, nor promote alternative ways of caring for heritage. It may not seem necessary to do so in order to avoid inadvertently exploiting volunteers and devaluing professional labour. Yet there is a real danger in simultaneously perceiving volunteers as a resource and assuming that participating ben- efits volunteers. It promotes volunteering as an enigma, through which everyone always benefits. This is the underlying logic behind ration- alising crowdsourcing projects in the heritage sector, whereby volunteers perform unpaid work remotely through digital interfaces. Despite alarming drop-out rates, it has led to the estab- lished practice of prioritising the development of volunteer recruitment and retention mecha- nisms, such as automated reminder messages, at the expense of attempting to improve the volunteer experience. In one widely celebrated case, the organisers identified volunteers having a good time as an intended outcome.Yet, despite low participation rates for their target demo- graphic and many volunteers leaving the project, it seems they never stopped to ask whether they were actually providing an enjoyable experience. Harald Fredheim is an objects conservator, heritage site manager and archaeologist. This article is based on his PhD research in the department of archaeology at the University of York. It is crucial that we continuously re-evaluate the design of our participatory projects. Are they deliberately designed to benefit participants, and how are these benefits constrained by other pro- ject drivers? I have attempted to present some of the theoretical lenses I use for this analysis in my research through this short article. Together, they highlight that democratising heritage in a critical sense must not only involve increasing participation within existing structures, but also opening up established concepts and practices for debate. I would like to challenge all of us who work with volunteers to think seriously about the risks of becoming exploitative.This must involve both designing participatory projects to benefit volunteers, and to consider how our projects contribute to broader divisions of volunteer and professional roles and responsibilities in caring for heritage during austerity. It begins by recognising that volunteering is not an enigma that inevitably provides both free labour and benefits for all. Only then can we move beyond manoeuvring volunteering to fill gaps in profes- sional work-flows to thinking creatively about heritage and how we can best care for it together. References Arnstein, S (1969) ‘A ladder of citizen participation’, Journal of the American Institute of Planners 35 (4) Blaug, R (2002) ‘Engineering democracy’, Political Studies 50 (1) DeSilvey, C (2017) Curated Decay: heritage beyond saving, University of Minnesota Press Fredheim, H (2018) ‘Endangerment-driven heritage volunteering: democratisation or “changeless change”’, International Journal of Heritage Studies , 24:6 Henkel, H and Stirrat, R (2001) ‘Participation as spiritual duty: empowerment as secular subjection’ in B Cooke and U Kothari (eds), Participation: the new tyranny? Zed Books Olma, S (2016) In Defence of Serendipity: for a radical politics of innovation, Repeater Rosol, M (2016) ‘Community volunteering and the neo-liberal production of urban green space’ in Y Beebeejaun (ed), The Participatory City, Jovis Smith, L (2006) Uses of Heritage, Routledge Waterton, E (2015) ‘Heritage and community engagement’ in T Ireland and J Schofield (eds) The Ethics of Cultural Heritage, Springer A decaying church in Volterra, Tuscany. Some conceptions of heritage, moving away from a focus on restoring tangible remains, are creating new dynamics of public participation.