LAUSR

This article examines an AHRC ‘Co-Design and Co-Production’ project focussed on the decision-making processes within the ‘heritage ecology’. The project involved three UK universities and a range of heritage institutions and community organisations. The project set out to empower community organisations through an emphasis upon deliberative democracy. Heritage is conceptualised as public value because it is used to define identity and belonging in civil society. Network governance theory is used to characterise the operational capabilities and the decision-making environment in the heritage ecology. The article argues that the public value of heritage is realised through network governance when ‘human elements’, such as emotional value are authentically and legitimately represented in deliberative processes.