Restorative Justice

How can restorative justice provide a framework for thinking about heritage, care, and access (or not) - both today and in the future? In the Global Conservation: Histories and Theories (GloCo, ERC funded Consolidator Grant) project, we understand the term “Restorative Justice” to describe the connection between political and social struggles for justice and the practices of preservation that take place in museums, universities, archives, and beyond. We propose moving beyond the concepts of care and conservation to a broader horizon that we call “Restorative Justice.” The concept draws on the field of law, where restorative justice has been conceptualized since the 1990s as a process involving all those affected by harm in addressing and repairing it, rather than focusing exclusively on the perpetrators (Zehr, 1990).