Heritage, socio-cultural animation and local community development

This book presents heritage in its material and immaterial matrices as a cultural asset, a sign of identity, social cohesion and the basis for exercising citizenship as a right to cultural participation. The narratives about heritage are the starting point for a reflection based on the social, cultural and economic roles of cultural assets, which, due to their differentiating elements - socio-cultural authenticity and uniqueness - play a vital role in the sustainability of territories and communities. Cultural assets are at the heart of heritage education, a process of ＂cultural literacy＂ in the contexts of formal, non-formal and informal education that enhances the community’s awareness of heritage. Socio-cultural animation as a didactic of participation encourages the exercise of citizenship in the processes of safeguarding heritage and local community development. It is essential to understand the cultural, social and educational roles of tourism and the socio-economic role of the social economy, an economy that favours the common good and is an instrument for the active participation of the local community in the processes and dynamics of community development.