Dinge, die verbinden

Anyone who researches heritage and identity constructions and deals with objects, places or traditions focusses on connections to things that are symbolically charged in different ways and become relevant as heritage for different groups. The fifth volume of the Research Training Group's "Identity and Heritage" series focuses on the relationships that produce and (de)stabilise things and their social contexts. The material aspects of heritage often reinforce narratives about supposed continuities, but they can also be driving forces for change. The articles in this volume explore this area of tension. They deal, for example, with the role of affects, questions about how things are instrumentalised in heritage processes and what can be understood as 'substance' in the first place, or how material 'legacies' are dealt with. So what exactly are things, objects or items - and what meanings do they take on in inheritance practices?