Author: Philipp P. Thapa
May 2024

Conference: Sustainability: Challenging mindsets through heritage interpretation – Interpret Europe Conference 2024

That we try to persuade each other of what we believe to be true and good is a commonplace and often beneficial part of social life. More so, some situations are inherently about and for persuasion. When we attend a lecture or read a newspaper comment, we at least accept the risk of having our minds changed, and we often want just that, in that we want to learn something. The same applies to guided heritage tours. Still, heritage interpreters, like teachers or journalists, find themselves in a position of special trust and hence special responsibility. If they use it to challenge and influence their audience’s habits of mind, they have a moral obligation to make their agenda transparent and be prepared to support it with arguments, not just appeals or suggestive storytelling.