Completed Project

ECHOES

International collaboration to better understand how museums interact with colonial histories.

Project summary

The Challenge

How can the European history of empires and colonialism form a part of its identity in a way that does not alienate its migrant population?

The Approach

The team assessed if migrant groups are alienated by European cultural norms and heritage in order to establish new heritage that is more inclusive.

The Outcome

It has helped to establish an understanding of European culture that accurately reflects its history while being considerate of all its communities.

Lead academics

Funded by

The Challenge

Modern Europe is grappling with a serious conundrum. How can the past of colonialism and empire in Europe contribute to its identity without alienating its immigrant population? People who may have once been lauded, such as a generous merchant who received a statue while acquiring their riches from the slave trade, would now be seen negatively.

ECHOES examined European heritage, former colonial nations, and their connections. We looked at heritage in terms of the things we cherish enough to pass on to future generations, such as monuments, memorial events, and cultural norms.

The Approach

We led a team of international scholars on this pan-European project. We assessed if migrant groups are alienated by European cultural norms and heritage and discovered how we can create policies to establish new heritage that is inclusive of migrant communities, not alienating to them.

ECHOES combined the innovative theoretical conceptualization of ‘de-colonial entanglements’ with deep empirical exploration of both EU institutional activities and programs together with key European and non-European city innovations and connections.

The major research objectives were as follows:

To analyse the EU’s expanding engagement with ‘heritage politics’ through investigating the (missing) place of colonialism in key EU initiatives, policies, or programs, and thus more broadly with contemporary notions of European identity and quests to legitimate the EU’s global initiatives.
To explore and assess heritage practices in and entanglements between European and non-European cities, focusing on city museums, artistic creations and citizen activities.
To share insights and knowledge via a form of science diplomacy, thus introducing the practices in cities into EU-level debates.

The Impact

This major European project will have significant policy implications for relations and reparations with former European colonies. Ultimately it will help to establish an understanding of European culture that accurately reflects its history and yet is considerate and inclusive of all its communities.

The project is funded by EU Horizon 2020.