IN-PERSON ISTANBUL HERITAGE(S)

Abstract

City games, historical walks, photo presentations, community archives and local history museums – polish urban space is full of grassroot initiatives dealing with the past. Local community activists operate outside the mainstream of history, like Decerteauian workers, utilizing scraps of material – undiscovered stories, objects found in the trash. From these remnants, they create fertile ground for further action. The aim of this paper is to show the process of transforming insignificant past into a significant heritage. Following Jean Lave and Etienne Wenger, I would like to show, how these communities of practices legitimize peripheral knowledge, contributing to the transformation of the places where they live. This will follow us to the question about the role of grassroots initiatives in inducing social change in the city understood as a social and cultural space. Consequently, I would like to question the role of grassroots initiatives in constructing social change in the city, understood as a social and cultural space. The process of legitimizing of peripheral meanings resembles a food chain, where different social actors perform different roles. This means that we can see the heritage generated by local activists as cultural capital, which is then used, adapted and, sometimes, captured by subsequent actors– the public and commercial sectors. I would like to show how the past changes its meanings during this process. The question, however, is how to support grassroots initiatives essential for building strong urban communities in the inevitable process of institutionalization and commercialization. The paper bases on a research project „Small museums” by Ari Ari Foundation. In-depth interviews, as well as the participant observation were used as methods.