Heritage: Management, Interpretation, Identity

Heritage and its preservation is a major concern around the world. In order to establish identities, as well as attracting visitors, the natural and cultural heritage is protected, conserved, managed and interpreted, by families, by cities, by nation states and at international level. Environmental and cultural heritage is now accepted as a major feature in business location, as the demand for quality of life becomes insistent.This major movement has resulted in the development of Heritage as a field of study, both on its own, and as elements within many other disciplines, such as geography, art history, archaeology, ecology and tourism management. While the techniques of conservation remains within specialist disciplines, Peter Howard offers a textbook for students approaching heritage as a combined field of study for the first time. The fields of heritage under review range from the nature trail to the cathedral, and from the family album to the national park, viewed at a variety of levels, including family and local heritage as well as the national and international dimensions. Heritage is seen as a demand led activity, with interested stakeholders being academics, governments, owners, school-children, pilgrims and the media as well as the ubiquitous tourist. There is a process by which some things are selected as heritage, but others are ignored, and it is the practical management of this process which is the focus to which the text constantly returns.