Cultural Justice and Popular Music Heritage in Deindustrializing Cities

Critical heritage studies consider the social, cultural, economic, and political dimensions of heritage construction. Heritage is not neutral; it reinforces historical canons and privileges dominant groups. 'Heritage from below' and archival activism resist these discourses. Critical heritage studies draw on 'social justice' to understand how heritage can perpetuate and resist social inequalities.

Social justice is a central concern in the heritage profession, focusing on inclusion, community archives, and documenting human rights violations. Cultural justice addresses the cultural dimensions of injustice, focusing on cultural domination, nonrecognition, and disrespect. Nancy Fraser distinguishes between socio-economic and cultural injustices. Cultural justice involves resisting, subverting, and challenging injustices through discursive and material practices. Andrew Ross links cultural justice to struggles against injustice, necessitating respectful recognition of cultural differences. Mark Banks identifies three layers of justice related to culture: justice to culture, justice to cultural work, and distributive justice. Michael Denning argues cultural justice encompasses 'cultural politics,' including affirmative action and struggles for dignity. Struggles for cultural justice involve artists, intellectuals, and cultural workers organizing to reinstate dignity and equal access to cultural institutions. It also involves reshaping selective traditions to determine which works are preserved and displayed. Banerjee and Steinberg detail the 'Cultural Justice Approach,' using perceptions of cultural injustices to mobilize communities against injustice. They offer three key tools:

Symbologies of Place

• Physical remains of a community’s past history.

• Images of ongoing economic and cultural relationships in the community.

• Cultural symbols and imaginaries.

• Landmarks that are part of community members’ collective memories.

• Collective efforts for historic preservation of cultural heritages.

Historiographies of Space

• Historical narratives and ‘place-based storytelling’.

• Construct a platform for sharing knowledge about a community’s spatial history and attachment to place’.

• Allow communities to contest “official” public knowledge and offer alternative sets of knowledge claims about local culture, history, and heritage’.

Social Ties and Community Networks

• Community mobilizes for collective action and to help ‘retain links to collective identities’.

• Informal networks and ‘intra-community’ support.

• Drawing on resources for ‘financial support, volunteering, and organizational needs’.

• ‘Inter-community’ networks – ‘relationships with well-established activist networks’ that can help ‘garner support and [a] public platform for community resistance’.

Reference to cultural

Reference to cultural resources for ‘revitalizing local communities’ and as a source of community empowerment. Reference to social ties as a means of sustaining community cohesion in the face of external pressures. The Cultural Justice Approach offers a theoretical framework for understanding and addressing cultural injustices related to heritage and community empowerment. This approach emphasizes the importance of recognizing cultural dimensions of injustice, promoting community mobilization, and utilizing tools like symbologies of place, historiographies of space, and social ties to foster resistance and resilience.