Management of cultural heritage for growth - preservation in search for user values

• Objects and environments related to cultural heritage have attained an increased interest in policies for regional growth. Heritage management is then not only considered as a preservation of history but a resource and an asset for creation of attractiveness and development. In Sweden, this change is in accordance with the ongoing transformation of the national regional policy, where initiatives are delegated to the regions. The transformation is moreover, in accordance with aims in the European union, where cohesion money is directed towards the regional level. However, historically preservation of cultural heritage has been a national interest and although it formally is delegated to counties, management still is dominated by traditional values, perspectives, and methods developed for the national heritage. This paper presents a study among administrators of cultural heritage at the regional level, county antiquarians, that indicate how lack of theory, empirical examples, evaluation, as well as basic knowledge on regional development, add confusion to the debate between heritage interests and actors from industry, housing, politics, and other parts of public administration. Ambitions to develop cultural tourism and attractive housing highlight conflicts between preservation perspectives and commercial interests. While developing a language for the analyses of relations between cultural heritage and regional development, taking care of the spatial context a heritage object is located in, it is here argued for further introduction of methods of regional analysis and policy evaluation in the management of cultural heritage. Such methods and languages may improve the basis for negotiations between conflicting interests.

Subject headings

HUMANIORA  -- Historia och arkeologi (hsv//swe)

HUMANITIES  -- History and Archaeology (hsv//eng)

SAMHÄLLSVETENSKAP  -- Ekonomi och näringsliv -- Nationalekonomi (hsv//swe)

SOCIAL SCIENCES  -- Economics and Business -- Economics (hsv//eng)

SAMHÄLLSVETENSKAP  -- Social och ekonomisk geografi -- Kulturgeografi (hsv//swe)

SOCIAL SCIENCES  -- Social and Economic Geography -- Human Geography (hsv//eng)

Keyword

Cultural heritage

cultural tourism

regional growth

regional policy

Kulturarv

regional utveckling

regionalpolitik

Social and Economic Geography

kulturgeografi

nationalekonomi

Economics

Publication and Content Type

vet (subject category)

kon (subject category)