Community of Practice

POEM – Towards a Community of Practice (CoP) of Participatory Memory Work, Fostering Socially Inclusive, Future-Envisioning Memory Making in Europe

Communities of Practice (CoP) form around emerging problems or tasks of everyday life. They bring together people with varied knowledge backgrounds and levels of expertise, which matter decisively for coping with these challenges by learning from one another. Rethinking memory making practices in Europe as more participatory, socially inclusive and future-envisioning requires a broad spectrum of knowledge, expertise, know-how, competencies, capabilities, proficiency and a broad basis of people for fostering these in their particular contexts and fields of work. The POEM Innovative Training Network (ITN) will provide knowledge for initiating these new approaches to memory making by creating genuine connectivities across memory institutions, people and groups and memory modalities (i.e. the particular modes of building memories in today’s digital media ecologies).

POEM is open and eager to connect with those who share our idea of socially inclusive, future-envisioning memory practices to facilitate them with tools, strategies and concepts in this joint endeavour. The CoP and ITN addresse a diverse group of multidisciplinary international stakeholders such as cultural institutions, professionals related to GLAMs (Galleries, Libraries, Archives and Museums) and bridge-builders (e.g. open knowledge activists and NGOs). Others include cultural entrepreneurs, social change makers, creative sector experts, IT-related communities, digital heritage professionals, cultural heritage geeks and every single person contributing to the idea of open, socially inclusive societies in Europe and beyond.