Abstract

The Community Toolkit is a methodological resource developed within the Co.Co.War research project, which focuses on the conservation and communication of architectural heritage associated with war, conflict, and contested memory. Rather than offering prescriptive solutions or standardized participatory models, the Toolkit provides a critical framework to support professionals and researchers working in contexts marked by dissonant, traumatic, or conflictual heritage. Its primary aim is to help navigate the ethical, epistemological, and relational complexities that arise when engaging communities around difficult legacies. The Toolkit is grounded in the understanding that dissonant heritage cannot be addressed solely through technical expertise or generic participation methods. Dissonance emerges from layered perceptions, memories, silences, power relations, and mediations that influence how heritage is interpreted, negotiated, rejected, or avoided. Responding to these dynamics requires not only appropriate tools, but also a coherent methodological logic that determines when and how engagement occurs, what kinds of knowledge are produced, and how risks are identified and managed throughout the process. To address these needs, the document is structured around two interdependent components: the Community Toolkit and the Community Process Diagram (CPD). The Toolkit consists of a structured repertoire of tools designed to facilitate dialogue, observation, mapping, and interaction with communities. The CPD provides a sequenced and reflexive methodological framework that governs the activation and combination of these tools. Together, they form a single methodological system: without the CPD, the Toolkit risks becoming a decontextualized set of techniques; without the Toolkit, the CPD remains an abstract structure without operational capacity. Importantly, the Toolkit’s tools are not neutral or universally applicable. Each embodies specific assumptions about interaction, agency, and interpretation, shaping relationships with communities and generating ethical and emotional implications. Consequently, the Toolkit is conceived as a flexible, modular resource, encouraging the careful selection, adaptation, or exclusion of tools based on research objectives, contextual conditions, and identified sensitivities.