El campo patrimonial y museístico: un espacio cultural conflictivo

The processes of acceptance as heritage and musealisation do not respond to history or aesthetics-related criteria, but rather to identity-related criteria. They do not concern scientists, specialists and policy-makers alone, but also social groups. The choice of cultural assets is not an objective consequence of their formal characteristics. It is the result of the selection made by social agents so as to represent a group identity. But no social group is homogeneous; on the contrary they are diverse and complex so the identity references, and therefore the cultural assets, do not have to be univocal. Beyond the aseptic discourses, many of these processes are controversial. Differences regarding the identity references and the uses to be made of cultural assets lead to the field of heritage and museums being spaces where interests and values clash. This article presents and analyses the conflicts that arose in the Basque municipality of Legazpi when the process of musealisation and acceptance of iron production as heritage first started.