"Europe Starts Here!" A Cultural Discourse Analysis of the European Heritage Label

Sammanfattning: This thesis analyses the discourse of cultural heritage by taking the European Heritage Label (EHL) as a case study. The European Heritage Label is an organization established in 2011 by the European Union (EU) and created an application process for historical and cultural sites to be labelled as “European Heritage”. This thesis aims to critically analyse heritage as a concept that is used and produced for specific purposes, in an EU context. I question how the European Heritage Label is using and producing cultural heritage, and what the contemporary use is of such. I also research what effect this has on its discourse within EU context by using Smith’s (2006) authorized heritage discourse theory and Hartog’s (2014) historical authenticity concept to aid in achieving this. By means of a critical discourse analysis and netnography, I study material such as the legislative document establishing the European Heritage Label, heritage sites as case studies, online webpages, and other visual aspects such as postcards. I have found that through the European Heritage Label the term heritage is appropriated by giving historical and cultural aesthetics and narratives a European aspect. This is done to point out the EU’s influence and to create a certain imagined community. Thus, the discourse of heritage as a contemporary concept experiences a lot of influence from authorized institutions which results in biased selection and exclusion.