This book examines heritage reconstruction and its relationship to community recovery after cultural trauma. Its content and structure situate it within a new body of theory concerned to shift focus from physical buildings and ensembles to people, from the material to the social. The contributions integrate the social meaning of heritage with the subjective feelings and needs of individuals engaged in processing cultural trauma. The collection of studies touches upon sociological, psychological, healing, and anthropological dimensions of heritage recovery.

The new question that this book brings to the heritage discourse is: Can cultural heritage serve as a medium for healing societal trauma? The volume is divided into five thematic sections: 1. Coming to terms with the past; 2. Inclusiveness; 3. Building Resilience; 4. People in Focus; 5. Crossing borders. The nexus between people and heritage is explored through case studies on diverse recovery contexts - Bosnia, Gazza, Syria, Iraq, Uganda, Albania, Nepal, Zanzibar, Lebanon – different practices of international organisations, and formative documents of contemporary international doctrine. Difficult issues of justice, ethics, human rights, sustainable development, and the lengthy process of coming to terms with life after trauma are brought into contact with technical challenges and cultural, historical, and economic contexts. The book establishes the theory of inclusive heritage discourse, which reconciles informal heritage practices and authorised heritage discourse, and will be relevant for academic researchers, students and professionals in the field of heritage studies but also in conflict, human rights, and humanitarian studies.

Amra Hadžimuhamedović is President of the HIDR Centre for Peace and Heritage in Sarajevo, at the International Forum Bosnia, where she previously worked as Director of the Centre for Cultural Heritage. A leading expert in the implementation of Annex 8 of the Dayton Peace Accord for Bosnia and Herzegovina, she has directed numerous projects integrating cultural heritage into post-war recovery in Bosnia, Kosovo, Palestine, and Iraq. She has served as a consultant for UNESCO, ICCROM, the World Bank, ICOMOS International, OSCE, ARC-WH, Welfare, and other organizations. From 2010 to 2019, she taught History of Architecture and Architectural Conservation at the International University of Sarajevo, and has guest-lectured at universities across the USA and Europe. She has published widely, including the books Heritage, War and Peace (2014); Human Rights and Destruction of Cultural Memory (ed. 2005); and Bosnia: Destruction of Cultural Heritage (co-author, 2015). She founded ISSYH, a school for sustainable, inclusive, resilient, and holistic heritage recovery within HIDR, attended by emerging professionals engaged in post-trauma reconstruction worldwide. She has served on the Council of Europe’s Committee for Cultural Heritage (CDPAT), contributed to the drafting of the Faro Convention and Parliamentary Assembly Recommendation 2071 (2015), and participated in the scientific and steering boards of INTERREG EC projects. An ICCROM Fellow (2008), delegate and later Vice-President of the ICCROM General Assembly, she has been involved in UNESCO’s Mondiacult 2025 Report on Culture and Peace, the World Bank–UNESCO CURE paper, and joint ICOMOS–ICCROM initiatives on recovery and reconstruction. She is co-editor of Analysis of Case Studies in Recovery and Reconstruction, reviewer of the Peacebuilding Assessment Tool for Heritage Recovery and Rehabilitation (PATH), advisor for Community-Based Heritage Indicators for Peace, and member of both the Europa Nostra Advisory Panel for the 7 Most Endangered and the Council of the European Heritage Hub.