Heritage and cultural management: participatory experience in Cuenca

Abstract

This article reflects on the link between cultural and heritage management and civil society participation, through the experience of Agenda Ciudadana. Within this frame, open citizen forums were used as participatory methodologies to identify problems and co-construct solutions with multi-actor stakeholders. As a result, it offers a participatory management model, an action-oriented model, dealing with real-world problems, and enhancing decision-making from civil society. Furthermore, this participatory process brought up heritage management as a discussion point for citizenship. The article lays out the central citizen collective Cuenca Ciudad para Vivir concepts related to heritage and cultural management. The second section explains the methodological approach used in the forums held for Agenda Ciudadana. The third section delineates the problems identified and the possible solutions for them. To end up with a contextualization of the heritage and cultural management during the recession and health care crisis due to the Covid-19 pandemic.