Page - 242 - in Limina - Grazer theologische Perspektiven, Volume 3:2

242 | www.limina-graz.eu Chiara Zuanni | Heritage in a digital world age is therefore considered the negotiation and the result of an intangible process in the present, in which values are ascribed to material and imma- terial cultural and natural features, with the aim of preserving and manag- ing them for the benefit of future generations. It includes practice-oriented aspects (e. g. conservation, heritage management, tourism, museum prac- tice) and a theoretical reflection on the cultural, social, and political impli- cations of “heritage”. More recently, Colin Sterling has examined the po- tential and risks that the use of posthuman theories entails for Critical Her- itage Studies, concluding that critical posthumanism could offer productive provocations for heritage research (Sterling 2020). In short, the field of Critical Heritage Studies has emerged in the last decade as a productive area for interdisciplinary work questioning relationships between materialities, cultures, environments, pasts, presents, and futures. In parallel to these developments, digital heritage has also emerged both as a research field concerned with the impact of digital technologies on herit- age practices, as it will be discussed in the next section, and as the heritage produced in digital format. Indeed, a large part of contemporary culture is born-digital, through the platforms and media that circulate information in the digital sphere in various formats (such as texts, databases, images, videos, etc.). UNESCO highlighted the need of preserving this heterogenous digital heritage already in 2003, in the Charter on the Preservation of the Digital Heritage – and the explosion of participatory platforms and social networks in the last decade has further highlighted the challenges of deal- ing with this material in archives and museums, as it will be discussed in a later section. This paper will draw on Critical Heritage Studies to discuss the configura- tion of digital heritage as part of a posthuman heritage. For the purposes of this paper, I define “digital heritage” as any information and data ex- changed in a born-digital form: for example, this can be constituted by a single document or website, by an app, or by social media post(s). The fol- lowing sections will first discuss how digital media enables new conversa- A large part of contemporary culture is born-digital, through the platforms and media that circulate information in the digital sphere. I define „digital heritage“ as any information and data exchanged in a born-digital form.