Social management of cultural heritage in Brazil: challenges and perspectives

The aim of this essay is to investigate the cultural heritage management in Brazil from the formation of the public sphere and the federal policy of artistic and historical heritage preservation. We've tried to answer which are the challenges and perspectives of the social management of cultural heritage in Brazil. The public sphere from the perspective of Habermas is understood as an appropriate network for the communication of contents and trend setting. The outcomes show that the social management exhibits better perspectives to the cultural heritage management, because it includes the community, stimulates the citizen's participation in the conservation and legitimates the community cultural representations. However, the challenge is the elite status overcoming in the cultural heritage preservation in Brazil.