Critical History Tours: From idea to reality

ongoing

The ‘Critical History Tours’ project is a dynamic, multi-partner initiative designed to create and promote successful critical history walking tours across European countries. This innovative program engages with tension tied to historical debates in modern societies, focusing on how these debates manifest in public spaces, particularly in contested urban areas. By utilising the medium of walking tours as an intervention located at the intersection of public history, heritage, and tourism, the project aims to address these tensions constructively. The project will - Improve public awareness and critical understanding of Europe’s historical heritage. - Strengthen cross-sectoral and transnational cooperation between providers of critical history tours, researchers and teacher educators leading to improved competences of the staff working at these organisations. - Expand the possibilities of citizens to participate in tours and engage in conversations about local and global contested histories. Through critical history tours, typically neglected groups will see themselves reflected in the public education sphere in a new way, and increase their interaction with the sector. - Empower local authorities, public institutes, cultural interest groups, and social entrepreneurs to develop and use inclusive and diversity-sensitive activities, practices, and methods that help them deal with the past in a constructive manner, especially through consultation with affected communities. - Create new adult education opportunities in the form of high quality, flexible and internationally recognised professional development courses for tour operators, educators and guides, which will continue to be offered to anyone giving tours on local contested histories in a professional capacity. - Reduce the skills gap by increasing the number of newly qualified tour guides.