Stephanie Koerner and Aliah Ullah, University of Manchester

Today it is major commitment on the part of local, national and international governance agencies to facilitate greater 'upstream public participation' in policy processes ranging from 'techno-science risk management' to 'sustainable development' and including 'alternative voices' and hitherto 'excluded pasts' in setting out agendas for such major pedagogical institutions as those of heritage and museums. Problematic caricatures of 'public deficits of understanding' and the 'beliefs of others' are said to be things of the past.

But new versions continue to flourish, including highly paradoxical 'post-modern' versions that eclipse the importance of the indeterminacy of dynamics of major pedagogical institutions and public affairs for sustaining conditions of possibility for plurality of heritage and aspirations for the future. In this presentation, I will illustrate features of an approach to challenges the situation poses in urban development and public museum settings with case study materials from Rotterdam and Manchester.