Dr. Iuliia Eremenko participated in the Cultural Heritage Academic Interdisciplinary Network (CHAIN) 2024 conference

Dr. Iuliia Eremenko, Assistant Professor at the Faculty of Political Science and International Studies at the University of Warsaw, participated in the Cultural Heritage Academic Interdisciplinary Network (CHAIN) 2024 conference, which took place at the University of Catania from February 27 to 29. The conference focused on “Cultural Heritage Routes. Safeguarding, Participation, Sustainable Development”, attracting a diverse group of experts and academics to explore innovative approaches in cultural heritage preservation and management.

Her presentation, titled “Local experts in world heritage cities: understanding their role in polycentric governance of Torun and Zamosc heritage sites”, offered insightful findings on the coordination of policies across different sectors of government. Based on the concept of polycentric governance, which allows for a more inclusive representation of different social actors through multiple, formally independent decision-making centers, her study provides a comparative analysis of the Polish World Heritage Cities of Torun and Zamosc. It focuses on how expertise on World Heritage issues is built and the influence of World Heritage experts, in the decision-making process.

This research is part of a project named “Local experts in Polish and German World Heritage Cities: understanding their role in polycentric governance of heritage sites” (project number 2021/43/P/HS5/02926), which illuminates the complexities of polycentric governance in protecting world heritage cities. The study has received co-funding from the National Science Centre and the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under the Marie Skłodowska-Curie grant agreement no. 945339.