What is Empty Signifier

Heritage education has been viewed as an aspect associated to the building of local and national identities, but there has been little exploration of the way it relates to Global Citizenship Education. This chapter explores this relationship in theoretical terms, through documentary review and analysis from a socio-critical perspective. One of the initial conclusions is that heritage education is associated with art history and is the work of formal and informal education institutions. Another more in-depth conclusion is that there are relationships between these two types of education that share the common thread of identity-building and participation, which ties in with recognition of the changes caused to societies through globalisation. The chapter concludes with a series of questions asking whether it is possible to conceive a global heritage or identity.