The Council of Europe Framework Convention on the Value of Cultural Heritage for Society, better known as the Faro Convention, emphasizes the relevance of participation in cultural heritage and its clear potential benefits. Despite the growing literature on participation in cultural heritage, little research through systematic reviews has been conducted in this field. This paper explores definitions of participation, its actors, and its challenges with a focus on cultural heritage, and it aims to fill this gap by providing a systematic literature review based on PRISMA 2020 guidelines and Okoli guidelines. The results reflect on the definition of participation, the different actors involved, and the challenges facing participation in cultural heritage, based on the interactions of actors. Results further indicate that participation in cultural heritage specifically is in an early stage of adoption and that considerable effort is needed in assessing the adequate methodologies to face the challenges.

Since the 2011 revolution, Tunisia has undergone a transformative phase characterized by emerging models of governance that prioritize grassroots initiatives and community participation in local affairs. Despite its manifold challenges, this political renewal has unfolded during political, socioeconomic, and security crises. Through a case study of the commune of Mhamdia, this article aims to examine two key aspects: (1) how communes can approach built heritage amidst the presence of national, international, governmental, non-governmental, profit, and non-profit actors, and (2) how heritage management can pose challenges, occasionally leading to the destruction of historical elements. This qualitative analysis, rooted in practitioner research, explores shifting paradigms and evolving dynamics within traditional and novel practices, shedding light on their impact on built heritage. The results demonstrate that, similar to national players, local elites also leverage built heritage to fortify their legitimacy, albeit through different means. Desde la revolución de 2011, Túnez ha experimentado una fase transformadora caracterizada por modelos emergentes de gobernanza que priorizan las iniciativas de base y la participación comunitaria en los asuntos locales. Esta renovación política, a pesar de sus múltiples desafíos, se ha llevado a cabo en períodos de crisis recurrentes que abarcan los dominios político, socioeconómico y de seguridad. A través de un estudio de caso del municipio de Mhamdia, este artículo tiene como objetivo examinar dos aspectos fundamentales: (1) cómo las comunas pueden abordar el patrimonio construido en presencia de actores nacionales, internacionales, gubernamentales, no gubernamentales, lucrativos y sin fines de lucro, y (2) cómo la gestión del patrimonio puede ser desafiante y llevar en ocasiones a la destrucción de elementos históricos. Este análisis cualitativo, enraizado en la investigación práctica, busca explorar los paradigmas cambiantes y las dinámicas en evolución tanto en prácticas tradicionales como novedosas, arrojando luz sobre su impacto en el patrimonio construido. Los resultados demuestran que, al igual que los actores nacionales, las élites locales también aprovechan el patrimonio construido para fortalecer su legitimidad, aunque a través de medios diferentes.

In this paper, I embark on a personal journey as an African woman and migrant researcher residing in Brussels, delving into the intersection of identity, academia, and solidarity. Beyond traditional academic confines, I navigate intricate power dynamics and uncover the significance of community and art. I acknowledge the challenges African researchers face in global academia, emphasising the need for solidarity and support within the academic community. Reflecting on my experiences as a researcher affiliated with an engineering institution, I discuss the reluctance in the engineering community to embrace decolonial methodologies and the tension between traditional academic expectations and unconventional approaches. Additionally, I delve into my identity as an African woman and migrant, highlighting challenges faced both in Tunisia and Brussels. This paper underscores the vital role of art and creative expression in fostering solidarity amongst marginalised communities and concludes by emphasising the importance of working from the margins to challenge power imbalances in academia and society.

This chapter investigates the challenges of developing participatory heritage platforms specific to Global South contexts through the P@trimonia 2.0 (P@ 2.0) research project, a Belgian-Tunisian collaboration. Using a case study approach and participant observation, the research examines two experimental fields: the historical urban landscape of Tunis, Tunisia and the Open Air Museum at the Sart-Tilman university campus in Liège, Belgium. The chapter identifies unique requirements and complexities in the Tunisian setting, highlighting issues related to both technology and culture. To address these issues, the chapter proposes decolonial computing principles. This approach aims to dismantle colonial biases in technology development, promoting knowledge exchange and community engagement. Overall, this chapter contributes to the discourse on decolonising technology by exploring challenges in participatory heritage platform development and advocating for decolonial computing principles. This approach aligns with postcolonial concerns and responsible global technology development, addressing critical issues within postcolonial discourse and the global Human-Computer Interaction community. <!----> <!----> <!----> <!---->

This discussion paper is a retrospective reflection on a qualitative interview corpus produced during my doctoral fieldwork in Tunis, Tunisia, in June 2022. As a researcher trained in architecture rather than linguistics or data science, I did not set out to build a language dataset, yet that is precisely what I produced. Working with 18 master’s students from two Tunisian universities, I coordinated the collection, transcription, and translation of 152 structured interviews with residents of the buffer zone of the UNESCO World Heritage Site of the Medina of Tunis. The interviews were conducted and transcribed in Tunisian and translated into French, within a single five-day fieldwork week. The resulting corpus, transcriptions, French translations, and a small number of audio recordings and photos, subsequently underpinned a published research paper, but was not formally documented, deposited, or cited as a dataset. This paper is also an account of remediation: the corpus has since been deposited on Zenodo, with public metadata and restricted access files, as a first step toward making it reusable. Looking back at this work now, I ask: what went wrong, why, and what should researchers outside the field of linguistics know before they find themselves in the same position? This paper is addressed above all to researchers in the humanities and built-environment disciplines who collect language data as part of their work without recognising it as such, and who risk, as I did, allowing irreplaceable fieldwork material to disappear into personal storage. The paper also situates this experience within a broader reflection on extractive research practices in asymmetric, cross-cultural settings.