Local Heritage, Global Context
Amidst new talk of the "Big Society ", we may forget that the concept of "place" has for long offered a multiplicity of small societies that are local and small scale yet universal to the human experience. This engaging collection of a dozen case studies presents a much-needed summary of the way that archaeologists today in Europe and beyond are thinking about place. For the authors, "sense of place" is firmly centred on people, and this book explores the multiple ways of deciding what this much-used term might mean, how sense(s) of place can be discovered, invented, promoted and used; ultimately, it makes us ask what is heritage actually for?
Graham Fairclough, English Heritage, UK
Heritage, Culture and Identity
Series Editor : Brian Graham,
School of Environmental Sciences, University of Ulster, UK
Other titles in this series
The Dynamics of Heritage
History, Memory and the Highland Clearances
Laurence Gourividis
ISBN 978 1 4094 0244 2
Landscape, Race and Memory
Material Ecologies of Citizenship
Divya Praful Tolia-Kelly
ISBN 978 0 7546 4957 1
Unquiet Pasts
Risk Society, Lived Cultural Heritage, Re-designing Reflexivity
Edited by Stephanie Koerner and Ian Russell
ISBN 978 0 7546 7548 8
Culture, Heritage and Representation
Perspectives on Visuality and the Past
Edited by Emma Waterton and Steve Watson
ISBN 978 0 7546 7598 3
Sport, Leisure and Culture in the Postmodern City
Edited by Peter Bramham and Stephen Wagg
ISBN 978 0 7546 7274 6
Valuing Historic Environments
Edited by Lisanne Gibson and John Pendlebury
ISBN 978 0 7546 7424 5
Southeast Asian Culture and Heritage in a Globalising World
Diverging Identities in a Dynamic Region
Edited by Rahil Ismail, Brian Shaw and Ooi Giok Ling
ISBN 978 0 7546 7261 6
Local Heritage, Global Context
Cultural Perspectives on Sense of Place
Edited by
John Schofield
University of York, UK
Rosy Szymanski
English Heritage, UK
First published 2011 by Ashgate Publishing
Published 2016 by Routledge
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Copyright John Schofield and Rosy Szymanski 2011
John Schofield and Rosy Szymanski have asserted their right under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988, to be identified as the editors of this work.
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British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
Local heritage, global context: cultural perspectives on
sense of place. -- (Heritage, culture and identity)
1. Place attachment--Congresses. 2. Community-based
conservation--Congresses. 3. Cultural property-
Protection--Congresses. 4. Community-based conservation-
Europe--Case studies--Congresses. 5. Community-based
conservation--Australia--Case studies--Congresses.
6. Cultural property--Protection--Europe--Case studies-
Congresses. 7. Cultural property--Protection--Australia-
Case studies--Congresses.
I. Series II. Schofield, John. III. Szymanski, Rosy.
363.6'9-dc22
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Schofield, John.
Local heritage, global context: cultural perspectives on sense of place / by John Schofield
and Rosy Szymanski.
p. cm. -- (Heritage, culture and identity)
Includes index.
ISBN 978-0-7546-7829-8 (hardback) 1. Cultural property. 2. Place attachment.
3. Environmental psychology. I. Szymanski, Rosy. II. Title.
CC135.S324 2010
155.9--dc22
2010029864
ISBN 13: 978-0-7546-7829-8 (hbk)
List of Contents
Anne Brakman Municipality of Maastricht. The Netherlands
Duncan Brown English Heritage, UK
Sue Clifford Common Ground, UK
Antony Firth Wessex Archaeology, UK
Rodney Harrison Faculty of Arts, Open University, UK
Cathy Hopley Forest of Bowland AONB, UK
Paul Mahoney Countryscape, UK
Hilary Orange Institute of Archaeology, University College London, UK
Rachel Radmilli Department of Management, University of Malta
John Schofield Department of Archaeology, University of York, UK
Rosy Szymanski English Heritage, UK
Stephen Townend Entec UK Ltd, UK
Paula Uribe University of Saragossa, Department of Antiquity Studies, Spain
Gurly Vedru Institute of History, Tallinn University and National Heritage Board, Estonia
Ken Whittaker Entec UK Ltd, UK
Jason Wood Heritage Consultancy Services, UK
This volume has an interesting history. It began with a big question about the significance of local places in what is often a predominantly national or at best regional heritage discourse, countering the scant regard often paid to local views, and promulgating the idea of NIMBYs (those arguing against development or change 'in my back yard') as mere busy-bodies. We believe that while these broader frameworks are necessary and perform a useful (indeed essential) role, it is local communities who are often the real experts, who are 'experts at living where they do' and who best understand the impact of change on their local environment. That was the question, which one of us (Rosy Szymanski) then took up during a placement with John Schofield at English Heritage during her studies for an MSc in Professional Archaeology at the University of Oxford's Department of Continuing Education, resulting in a database of definitions and interpretations of sense of place gathered from a diverse range of organizations and individuals.
A second stage, determined by the conclusion of this study, involved organizing two related conference sessions, first at the Institute of Field Archaeologists (IFA, now IfA Institute for Archaeologists) conference in Swansea (2007), followed by another at the European Association of Archaeologists conference in Malta (2008). All of the chapters in this collection were presented at either one of these conferences, the calls for papers for which were near identical, noting how 'sense of place',
is such a familiar phrase, and one now commonly used in professional and domestic situations to describe the emotional attachment people have to the places they hold dear. This sense of place sometimes referred to as 'genius loci' can equate with what has been termed 'the lure of the local', with its concern for the familiar the place where we live, or where we lived when we were children. It is also about rootedness, belonging, stability and identity. But that is a very broad definition and perhaps not so helpful in policy work, and developing community'-based heritage projects that seek to assess or characterise local areas. As heritage management practices increasingly take account of 'the local', and draw on the views and expressions of interest amongst local communities (people telling us what matters to them ), the need to fully understand what is meant by sense of place, and its uses and implications, becomes arguably more important than just semantics.