Figure 2 - available via license: Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International
Content may be subject to copyright.
Source publication
Cultural heritage policy in the UK puts a high value on participation, and heritage agencies often encourage that participation through appealing to the endangered status of the landscapes, sites and monuments in their care. Participation takes many forms, and can involve influencing policy, contributing to cultural outputs and enjoying cultural ac...
Context in source publication
Context 1
... noted above, fell shepherding is a core aspect of the inscription of the Lake District as a UNESCO's World Heritage Site under the category 'cultural landscape'. While the statement of Outstanding Universal Value references many aspects of the landscape's history, from the Romantic poets to the development of conservation values (Lake District National Park Partnership (LDNPP) 2016, 31), fell shepherding, and in particular the keeping of 'native breeds' including Herdwick and Rough Fell, has the largest public profile, as shown by the wide distribution of 'Herdy' the sheep stuffed toys (See Figure 2) to celebrate UNESCO's agreement to the inscription (see Figure 3). ...
Similar publications
This thesis identifies the increasingly hegemonic narrative surrounding green capitalism, what the narrative entails and how the discourse may manifest materially in policies and development programs. Specifically, the thesis explores how the narrative of green capitalism and green growth is expressed in the discourse in communication in the case o...
Citations
... This network-based strategies can implement new ways of showing and disseminating heritage in relation to its context. 47. May, 2020, 71-86. 48. ...
This study stems from the contemporary need to establish
a connection between heritage and citizens, a fundamental element
in heritage preservation and a safeguard for authenticity and identity
values.1 The study bridges the gap between theory and practice by
proposing a methodology based on diagnosis and subsequent proposals
to bring heritage closer to the local population. The case study
used for this purpose has been the city of Seville, Spain, and it primarily
focuses on built heritage and the Historic Urban Landscape. The methodology
outlined in this article comprises three phases: (1) Survey and
Data Collection, involving the design and implementation of
a perception-focused survey; (2) Results Analysis and Evaluation,
where the obtained data is statistically analysed, subsequently evaluated
qualitatively and quantitatively with a proposed a KPI system; (3)
Strategic Planning: finally, as a final outcome, the study utilises the
previous evaluation to formulate objectives and an action plan to
enhance the local community’s heritage relationship. It is expected
that the proposed methodology for this case study will be applicable
to other similar contexts.
... By harnessing the power of communities to participate in heritage conservation, it becomes possible to extend the conservation and attention to a broader historical area and to delve deeper into the value of heritage. This becomes a new direction in heritage conservation research [13][14][15]. ...
As an authoritative institution in cultural heritage conservation, ICOMOS plays a crucial role in guiding local communities’ participation in heritage conservation. However, its scattered and vague descriptions of local communities pose significant obstacles to further research and practice of community participation in heritage conservation. Given the increasing importance of local communities in heritage conservation, it is essential to systematically explore the connotation of Local Community connotations within ICOMOS discourse. This research employs Natural Language Processing methods to analyze ICOMOS’s descriptions of Local Community. Utilizing computational techniques of word frequency calculation, LDA (Latent Dirichlet Allocation) topic model keyword calculation, and hierarchical clustering calculation, the research uncovers relevant keywords and its thematic clusters of Local Community. These findings are further elucidated by aligning them with the principles outlined in authoritative documents of ICOMOS. The research indicates that ICOMOS’s descriptions of Local Community can be summarized into four main keywords families. These keywords families can be summarized as a comprehensive Local Community “three-level, four-family” keywords system. The “Tourism” keywords family exhibits a close association with Local Community, highlighting ICOMOS’s heightened emphasis on heritage tourism. The “Management-Development” keywords family occupies the second level, emphasizing fundamental principles for local communities’ participation in heritage practices. The “Traditional-Knowledge” and “Social-Economic” Keywords Families, situated in the third level, respectively describe the value attributes and conservation approaches of local communities. Each keywords family formed over different periods, exhibiting varying trends of development. By systematically integrating ICOMOS’s descriptions of Local Community and employing Natural Language Processing for in-depth exploration, This research aims to construct a cognitive understanding of local communities from a new perspective of quantitative text analysis, with the intention of providing theoretical references for subsequent research on local communities.
... Meanwhile, the activity of visiting the location of the tourist area is a long-term behavior possessed by prospective tourists. This is in line with what is expressed in the heritage cycle (May, 2020;Thurley, 2005) that in this view, by knowing and understanding cultural heritage, people will perceive history as something of value, knowing something that is of value then they will care about history. When people care about it, they will make others enjoy it and, finally, they will continue to be curious about history. ...
The expansion of transportation, communication, and infrastructure has accelerated the development of the tourism sector in Kupang City in recent years. However, not all sorts of tourism are successfully established, and historical tourism in Kupang City is one of them. This is ironic because, while technology has not yet made historical tourism a viable alternative for travelers, today's promotion should be simple and inexpensive. Even though the potential for tourist visits in Kupang City is fairly large, historical tourism promotion is the subject of this study due to a lack of advertising on this sort of tourist item. Therefore, the objectives of this research are to identify promotional activities and develop a communication model for promoting historic tourism in Kupang City. The case study technique was employed in this research, and the target informants were Penta Helix stakeholders in the tourism sector, they are the government, business people, communities, academics, and media. This study found that promotional activities at numerous historical tourism sites are still poorly managed. Furthermore, the underdevelopment of historical tourism is primarily due to a lack of political will on the part of leaders, the public's lack of historical information literacy, and a lack of mass media coverage, including ineffective use of social media. The model established in this study is a promotion communication model that includes the role of all stakeholders with a focus on historical tourist assets, messages, and media.
... Heritage resources are the great endowments of people in their localities (Holtorf & Ortman, 2008;Esfehhani & Albrecht, 2018;2019). Heritage is categorized in two major sub categories of tangible and cultural heritage resources. ...
Literature has it that heritage resources have not felt better with the series of previous global pandemics. These pandemics have created a lot of discontinuities in the life of these resources. However, this study was aimed at interrogating how COVID-19 pandemic has created hiatus (discontinuity) in heritage narratives in rural Nigeria. The study engaged key informant interviews, focus group discussion and observations, and data collated were analyzed descriptively. Multi-stage sampling was used in the sampling of 12 communities and 36 key informants for the study. At the end, aspects of heritage narratives as it concerns various traditional communities in Nigeria were interrogated. This includes heritage preservation, heritage transfer, heritage identity and promotion, heritage making and authenticity, heritage tourism, and heritage studies. From the discussions, it was deduced that the hiatus (discontinuity) that was induced by Covid-19 lockdown order, has monumental effects on cultural heritage resources in rural Nigeria with implications on their use and sustainability. The study further recommended stakeholders collaboration, registration and digitization of these cultural heritage resources.
... As calls for more participatory practices became widespread, a proliferating body of related work emerged, employing a wide range of methods and tools such as ethnography and oral history (e.g. Stephens and Tiwari 2015;Fu et al. 2017;May 2020), focus groups (e.g. Hasan, Chowdhury, and Wakil 2022), attitudinal surveys (e.g. ...
... Participatory work, when reduced to normalised tasks or work-package components to achieve credibility and funding, is left with limited capacity to nurture the initiation of power-redistribution processes between citizens/community and traditional powerholders . In turn, it is rendered susceptible to becoming a euphemism in hegemonic discourses, where it can serve primarily as a cosmetic or tokenistic instrument for the reproduction of social relations of inequality and exclusion over predetermined decisions in heritage management processes (Beeksma and De Cesari 2019;May 2020). ...
... The latter implies that, in line to its original conception as a radical counter-hegemonic approach to dominant practice, participatory heritage shall not be stripped from its political meanings and functions. Previous experience and scholarly critique have raised concerns of how apolitical versions of participatory action can end up legitimising dominant heritage discourses, public investment or simply a reallocation of roles between the state, civic society and the market (Leal 2007;Beeksma and De Cesari 2019;May 2020). This leads us to a broader argument that moves our attention back to ontological considerations regarding the participatory ideal. ...
Although participatory heritage has become a ‘buzzword’ of cultural policy, it remains a challenging field for related practice. Set at Naxos Island, Greece, the research presented in this article forms part of a bigger project exploring the values and meaning-making processes in rural landscape, currently at risk of neglect and over-tourism. Here, we test the usability of the Nominal Group Technique (NGT) as a tool for allowing citizens to deliberate and devise community desirable actions for the protection and invigoration of rural monuments. As we discuss, apart from enriching our participatory ‘toolbox’, NGT can offer some insight into bottom-up processes of valuing the past and producing its historicity. Furthermore, our workshop participants initiate a dialogue, wherein they advocate for ‘hands-on’ solutions, which although fit largely with standard heritage management practice, are rearranged in alternative hierarchies; an atypical organisation of actions that reflects community aspirations to preserve a yet unsettled type of heritage that is currently ‘in-the-making’. This supports our main theoretical argument that participatory approaches shall not be treated instrumentally but positioned as part of a wider prefigurative politics project to resist dominant conservative and positivist processes of heritagisation.
... Nonetheless, difficulties in aligning the terms of the debate remain, not just across different disciplines, and sometimes within individual disciplines, but also across different sectors. What complicates the situation is the separation between academic discourse and practice (May, 2020). As the next section illustrates, there are differences between the cultural values of different stakeholders, not just in terms of what they mean by culture but also value. ...
The Scoping Culture and Heritage Capital study was commissioned jointly in November 2021 by the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) and Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS).
The study was led by Dr Patrycja Kaszynska, Senior Research Fellow at UAL , in partnership with cultural sector partners and policy makers, and collaborating with a team of researchers spanning arts and humanities, heritage science and economics: Dr Sadie Watson and Dr Emma Dwyer from Museum of London Archaeology (MOLA); Prof Diane Coyle, University of Cambridge; Prof Patrizia Riganti and Dr Yang Wang University of Glasgow, Dr Ricky Lawton, Simetrica-Jacobs and Dr Mafalda Dâmaso (UAL).
The findings of the scoping study are that the introduction of the CHC framework presents significant opportunities from the point of view of valuing the arts, culture and heritage, as well as policy decision-making as such. However, the scoping exercise shows that developing, operationalising and implementing this framework requires sustained research attention, methods refinement and, crucially, capacity- and capability-building across disciplines and sectors. This is not least because the value of arts, culture and heritage as conceived through the CHC framework is an inter- and trans-disciplinary concept.
The scoping study is accompanied by a AHRC/DCMS funding call for new research informed by the project’s recommendations.
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/scoping-culture-and-heritage-capital-report
... Reddel and Woolcock (2004) and Perkin (2010) highlighted that in promoting resident participation, such important stakeholders should be taken into account. In addition, previous studies have revealed that residents' participation in the management of cultural resources is closely related to other initiatives, such as the sustainable development of the region, responses to climate change, cultural heritage preservation activities, and world heritage site protection (ICOMOS, 2008;Vollero et al., 2018;May, 2020). Thus, this study focuses on the emerging importance of residents rather than that of other stakeholders, such as tourists or experts (Jimura, 2011;Vollero et al., 2018;Li et al., 2020;Zhang and Brown, 2022). ...
... For this reason, village leaders in this study play a role similar to that of a project manager in terms of ensuring resident participation in community groups. Thus, Rasoolimanesh et al. (2017) and May (2020) concluded that resident participation could be achieved by forming trust and strengthening the networks among residents, analysing important local stakeholders, and utilising intangible cultural resources. ...
... Accordingly, numerous international guidelines and published articles highlight the indispensability of community participation for various reasons, such as sustainable development, climate change response, heritage preservation and world heritage site protection (ICOMOS, 2008;Jimura, 2011;Vollero et al., 2018;May, 2020). ...
Background and objective: Recent research on cultural heritage has highlighted resident participation as an ideal method of managing local cultural heritages. However, many studies have raised questions about the practicality of this approach. This research undertook case studies of Jeoji-ri and Handong-ri on Jeju Island, South Korea focusing on how resident participation increases based on the related stakeholders, local heritages (natural, tangible and intangible cultural heritages) and social capital (trust and networking).
Methods: Sixty-one completed questionnaires were collected from adult residents of both villages (28 from Jeoji-ri and 33 from Handong-ri), and the resulting quantitative data were analysed using the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) and the R programming language. In addition, two semi-structured interviews were undertaken with the leaders of each village, and the resulting qualitative data were analysed thematically.
Results: The study found that the village leaders of Handong-ri and Jeoji-ri successfully encouraged trust and participation among village residents, suggesting that resident participation is largely influenced by the relevant stakeholders and the social capital of residents. Networking and intangible cultural heritages, such as rituals or village oral traditions, positively influence resident participation.
Conclusion: This study suggests that the active utilisation of intangible cultural heritages and the networks developed by cooperating with essential stakeholders are vital for encouraging resident participation.
... Further, this paper approaches the idea of change in objects from a perspective of value rather than risk. Risk management is a paradigm framed around fear of loss, and the development of practices of avoidance that are required to prevent that loss (May 2020). Henderson, however, notes that … The [conservation] profession's concern for the careful management of change results in the situation where it often falls to the conservator to articulate the negative consequences of some activity rather than the one considering the activity in terms of the opportunities it presents for learning, self-actualisation or fun. ...
This paper explores concepts of changeability, variability, and malleability in the different heritage genres of time-based artworks and utilitarian machinery. Case studies bring to the surface differences in understandings, norms, and boundaries, but also demonstrate similarities between the two areas of practice, showing that they can be viewed as poles of practice within a shared field of theory and practice rather than as separate and unrelated endeavours. The key issues for all communities caring for changeable objects are how to preserve the intangible sensory, cultural, and immersive experiences created by change, and how the practical actions required to maintain this intangible heritage interact with concepts of authenticity, performativity, and intention. This paper explores how these relationships evolve as time and contexts change, and how best practice in the conservation of changeable objects must acknowledge and manage the tension between the activation that preserves intangible, embodied experience, and the static maintenance that preserves the tangible components of an object with minimal physical change. Viewing objects through the lens of change opens the door to the development of a new field of conservation expertise, one focused on the challenges and opportunities presented by an object’s changeable qualities rather than by its original field of use. A lens of change has the capacity to draw together not only those working with time-based artworks and utilitarian machinery but also other communities of people caring for and activating changeable objects, such as horologists, roboticists, musicians, car enthusiasts, people activating historic costumes, and people managing still-active historic utilities such as water and transport infrastructure.
... When we argue that heritage is a process of connecting we apply what Višnja Kisić (2016) coined the Inclusive Heritage Discourse (IHD), which is a challenge of the Authorised Heritage Discourse (AHD) (Smith 2006), representing the traditional approach to heritage guiding heritage management since at least the 19th century. In sum, the IHD approach moves away from determining heritage as based on inherent values and meanings, towards seeing heritage as a meaning-making process continuously renegotiated in the present (Dicks 2000a(Dicks , 2000bSmith 2006;Harrison 2010Harrison , 2013Macdonald 2013;Smith and Campbell 2017) and aimed towards, as well as contributing to shape, a future (Holtorf and Högberg 2015;Harrison 2015;Harrison et al. 2020;May 2020). The latter aspect is particularly significant since stigmatised and marginalised groups in society are commonly denied future-perspectives (Dahlstedt 2018). ...
This paper examines how the concepts of pluralism and diversity are filled with meaning through specific practices and attitudes in museums in Nordic and Baltic countries, through a method of both a widespread quantitative questionnaire sent to ca 750 museums in Sweden, Norway, Finland and Estonia, as well as through qualitative semi-structured interviews with a selection of key-individuals. The paper frames the analysis around seeing heritage as a process of connecting where focus is placed upon the concepts of care and belonging. The paper identifies that the current speed of the museum hinders the process of reaching and connecting to a diverse audience, where a relationship based on mutual trust can be sustained over a long period of time. Furthermore, it identifies the need for a shared understanding within the sector as to what concepts such as integration and diversity mean and how it can be approached through practices in the museum. Finally, the paper recognises that the sector itself has to become more diverse in order to reach out to a plural society.
... The philosophical view of AHD is that heritage is a ruptured physical/material past that must be preserved (as found) for future generations to appreciate. In this sense, feelings of 'pastness' and 'endangerment' preoccupy the Cartesian thoughts of heritage (see May 2020). Smith (2006) challenged this traditional Western framing of heritage and suggests intangibility, identity, memory and remembering, performance, place, and dissonance as possible ways of engaging and understanding heritage in the present. ...
This paper reflects on how heritage knowledge is built around time-space discourses. It takes a Critical Heritage Studies (CHS) position to examine heritage knowledge systems through the lenses of Walter Mignolo’s decolonial praxis on ‘locus of enunciation’ and Tim Ingold’s exegesis on ‘dwelling perspectives’. Drawing from ethnographic evidence collected among the Igbo of Nigeria, the study engages Indigenous concepts and heritage ontologies in the context of time and space in heritage making in Africa. Secondly, it interrogates the evidence with the continuity that occurs in society through intergenerational knowledge systems that began with known ancestors. Thirdly, such sustainability mechanisms are examined using what I call ‘territorial communion’ – the ways in which those local knowledge systems are ‘printed’ on the landscape through human-nature ‘relational ontologies’, and how such pictured living holds heritage in a continuum. Finally, the paper contends that a good knowledge of intergenerational ‘dwelling perspectives’ from different loci of enunciation would begin the decoloniality of heritage in Africa.
