Ebook: Values in Heritage Management: Emerging Approaches and Research Directions

Over the last four decades, heritage professionals have increasingly engaged in public participation processes that have required responding to the diverse concerns of stakeholder groups and related political, economic, and cultural dynamics. As definitions of what constitutes cultural heritage have expanded, norms of heritage practice and heritage management approaches have increasingly evolved to place values at their core. The shifting landscape has compelled the field to broaden its focus from traditionally accepted categories of cultural values—historic, artistic, aesthetic, and scientific—to include intangible aspects, social values, and economic benefits. New methods for eliciting and assessing heritage values and stakeholder engagement have therefore been developed.

This volume, with contributions by sixteen leading international practitioners and scholars, considers how heritage relates to broader societal concerns including politics, cultural identities, economic trends, changing models of governance, and climate change and sustainability; reviews how values-based management approaches have been applied and adapted in a variety of geographic and cultural contexts; takes stock of emerging approaches to values in heritage practice and policy; identifies common needs and challenges; and proposes areas for developing approaches and future research to help improve conservation outcomes.