Community involvement in heritage
Gedrukt boek
The value of heritage for society is increasingly underscored. This goes hand in hand with a growing interest in local communities' involvement in heritage management plans. Although this shift in discourse is acknowledged, its practical implementation seems often too ambitious and is not easy to apply. Therefore, the Raymond Lemaire International Center for Conservation (RLICC, University of Leuven) considered "community participation in valuing and managing heritage" as a relevant and timely topic for its annual international conference, the "Thematic Week." This volume reports on the lectures and fruitful debates dedicated to this theme during the 2014 'Thematic Week.' The conference entailed an integral and holistic approach towards community participation. Focusing traditionally on the conservation of the historic urban environment and immovable heritage, the RLICC took the opportunity to involve both the intangible and movable heritage fields, which have a more apparent relation to community participation in managing heritage. The contributions - including theoretical reflections, policy/discourse analyses, and practical case studies - show that a balanced approach is needed.