Inclusive Heritage in Superdiverse Places: Redesigning inclusion in heritage content, practice, and policy in Leicestershire

This project will explore how access to, and participation in, heritage can be achieved in superdiverse places. Inclusive heritage has been found to be a ‘fundamental condition for social cohesion, trust, and society’s overall wellbeing’ (Dorpalen and Gallou 2023). As one of the UK’s first superdiverse cities (Vertovec 2007) where there is no ethnic majority, it might be expected that Leicester’s heritage sector and provision is equally diverse. Yet, Leicester’s large Indian community is routinely used as a proxy for Leicester’s diversity, to the exclusion of other groups. This lack of inclusivity is recognised in the Leicester Leading cultural strategy (LCC 2024), which notes that diversity has not equated to ‘inclusion, community cohesion and equality’ in the heritage sector. This project will ask how the heritage sector can embed a community-driven approach which challenges current ways of working, to develop heritage provision which properly reflects the communities it should serve.

As a cultural hub, Leicester city is the largest of several centres of heritage activity in the county which could be supported to operate collaboratively to ensure that currently marginalised groups are actively included in the activity of the sector. The project will therefore incorporate South Asian groups and organisations in two local towns, Oadby & Wigston and Loughborough.

The project will map current participation in the cultural heritage sector by Leicestershire’s highly diverse South Asian community and assess the diversity of heritage provision available to these communities in the city and county. This will enable excluded communities and gaps in provision to be clearly identified. The project will work with key stakeholders to prototype, test, and evaluate new approaches to inclusion across the sector. These stakeholders are:

1. Members of underserved ethnic, national, and generational communities. This is likely to include people with links to Bangladesh, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Nepal, the Maldives, Bhutan, and Afghanistan, and young people from the South Asian community.

2. Local community groups representing currently underserved groups within the South Asian community (e.g. Equality Action,)

3. Cultural heritage sector organisations from across the county (e.g. Inspirate, Charnwood Arts, Leicester City Council, Culture Leicestershire).

The project will develop a ‘pathway to inclusive superdiverse heritage’ which weaves together practice and policy recommendations for the cultural heritage sector and a toolkit for community organisations, focusing on embedding a community-driven, polycentric approach to inclusion.

This project has been co-created and is supported by researchers from Loughborough University, De Montfort University, and partners at Inspirate. The successful candidate for this project will be enrolled at Loughborough University.

Project Aims:

The aims of this study are to:

1. Map which groups within the South Asian community are currently excluded from participation in the local heritage sector, identify their needs, and understand the cultural assets of these groups;

2. Understand the specific challenges of achieving inclusive heritage in ‘superdiverse’ contexts;

3. Work with community stakeholders, cultural organisations, and policy-makers to co-create and test a policy and practice ' pathway’ to inclusive superdiverse heritage in Leicestershire.

What is Collaboratory?

Collaboratory is a new research programme, led by Universities for Nottingham and the Leicester Universities Partnership, that places community knowledge and experience at the heart of research. This eight-year initiative is pioneering a new approach to collaboration, working closely with local communities and community-focused organisations to develop and deliver research that aligns with the needs and priorities of local communities.