Symbolic Reparation,Heritage and Political Transition in South Africa’s Eastern Cape

This article first examines the Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s recommendation of symbolic reparation for apartheid, and its effect on South African heritage. Second, it considers the relationship between public history and civic nation building in South Africa, as well as problems in trying to develop an inclusive public history through museums. Case studies drawn from Grahamstown and Mthatha in the Eastern Cape are explored as examples of the redevelopment of the old and establishment of the new public history as part of the negotiated transition.     

A Framework for Sustainable Heritage Management: A Study of UK Industrial Heritage Sites

In 2002, the World Heritage Committee declared heritage to be ‘an instrument for the sustainable development of all societies’. The term ‘sustainable development’, however, is inscribed with a complex economic, environmental and social agenda that challenges contemporary World Heritage management practice. This paper draws on a content analysis of six industrial UK World Heritage Site management plans. The analysis focuses on the extent that each plan integrates four key sustainability dimensions. Findings indicate that the planning frameworks and collaboration processes in operation at each site ensure conservation of the historical physical fabric but limit the development of a sustainable local cultural economy. A sustainable heritage management framework is presented based on the adoption of a long‐term strategic orientation and extensive local community participation in decision making. The framework is relevant to other complex heritage sites such as historic towns and cultural landscapes.     

Tourism in Ethnic Communities: Two Miao Villages in China

The paper is concerned with the ways in which ethnic culture is presented and experienced by tourists with particular reference to two villages in China inhabited by members of the Miao minority group and popular with visitors. The study is based on qualitative and quantitative data derived from primary and secondary sources and findings reveal contrasts and similarities within and between destination residents and visitors regarding attitudes to tourism and its cultural impacts, especially in terms of authenticity. While the cases display unique features, their analysis affords more general insights into the characteristics of this particular form of heritage tourism and its consequences.     

‘The Birthplace of Australian Multiculturalism?’ Retrospective Commemoration,Participatory Memoralisation and Official Heritage

In Australia, the authorised heritage discourse contributes to shaping the stereotypically Australian. It actively engages in creating a contemporary national story which glosses over the more shameful or distasteful episodes and themes in Australian colonial and post‐colonial history which is presented as being by‐and‐large progressive and benign. While the process of forging national history has become more complex and increasingly fraught, given globalisation and the emergence of new histories, nation and nationalism remain culturally persistent. The turn to multiculturalism from the 1970s as the principal way of defining Australianness and the nation lead some conservatives in politics and the heritage industry to appropriate the new social history, using it to present diversity as an indicator of a fair and open society. In this process, both history—an evolving academic discipline—and the past—lived experience which has meanings and uses in the present—were transformed into heritage.     

Pacifying War Heritage: Patterns of Cosmopolitan Nationalism at a Danish Battlefield Site

Former battlefields are often held to be important nodes in national iconographies. This article offers an analysis of a Danish battlefield site which has historically been taken to epitomise fervently ethnic national qualities. The article traces significant shifts in the ways its relevance has been and currently is being imagined and expressed. The heritage and commemorative practices conducted here are analysed as an ongoing symbolic struggle between ‘civic’ and ‘ethnic’ conceptions of nation. It is argued that a third mode of identification, termed ‘cosmopolitan nationalism’, seems to be on the rise here. In such an understanding, the war site becomes ‘pacified’, i.e. symbolically associated with qualities of peace‐keeping and humanitarianism. Importantly, however, such agendas do not simply erase the site’s national significance but are analysed, rather, as re‐imbuing the site with a new strand of Danishness—now taken to entail cosmopolitan and reconciliatory values.     

Towards more inclusive,vital models of heritage: An Australian perspective

Abstract

This paper's review of relevant Australian writing critical of theory and practice concludes that official protection of the nation's heritage is a prejudicial, narrowly conceived system in the sense that it is not readily embraced by the public at large, and does not relate well to vigorous public concerns for the environment. Heritage remains too securely tied to the historic artefact. Much broader, vital concepts are needed. A ‘social and environmental relations’ model is proposed. Ideas related to such a concept are explored, including examples where heritage is integrated with aspects of community development. Practice in some communities is argued to be blazing paths well in advance of some of the heritage professionals. In support of such initiatives, research directions for historically‐based disciplines that are in accord with the proposed model are outlined.     

Dracula's castle in Transylvania: Conflicting heritage marketing strategies

Abstract

Transylvania, situated beneath the Carpathian mountains, is one of the travel frontiers of Europe and the most romantic province of Romania. To most of its visitors, Transylvania is associated with haunted castles and vampires, thanks to the literary character Dracula. Even though Bran Castle appears to form the perfect home for a vampire count, this heritage destination is surrounded by debate because of the conflicting marketing strategies adopted by various organisations for the specific purpose of increasing the profits made from tourism. This paper explores issues of marketing, policies for interpretation and the understanding of heritage sites within a formerly socialist society in transition to a market economy. It analyses potential promotional, advertising and interpretive strategies which could be applied to Bran Castle, and offers solutions to produce a better understanding of the role of heritage tourism in a transitional economy.     

The Challenges of Managing an Archaeological Heritage Site in a Declining Economy: The Case of Khami World Heritage Site in Zimbabwe

Abstract

This paper explores the case of the Khami archaeological site, whose degradation by the local communities in recent years was as a result of socio-economic problems caused by the collapse of the Zimbabwean economy combined with the inability of the Zimbabwean government to support the site. We argue that the negative attitude by the local communities towards the management of cultural heritage sites is embedded in the colonial history of the country, and has been driven by the socio-economic difficulties emanating from the collapse of the Zimbabwean economy in recent years. We begin by explaining the history of Khami, its architecture, and the local communities residing around it. We then show and assert that the subsequent degradation of Khami and the landscape around it by the local communities is linked to the socio-economic problems of the country and poverty, which emanated from the collapse of the Zimbabwean economy. In the end, we contend that the economic constraints are part of the reasons why the local communities have from time to time failed to respect the importance of protecting cultural heritage sites in the country.     

Collective Amnesia and the Mediation of Painful Pasts: the representation of France in the Second World War

This paper describes research that was designed to examine the assertion that historic designation of properties, under the heritage legislation in Canada's largest province, has a negative impact on the values of those properties. The actual selling price of subject properties was used to establish their value history trends, which were then compared to ambient market trends within the same communities. Almost 3,000 properties in twentyfour communities were investigated, in what is believed to be the largest study of its kind ever undertaken in North America. It was found that heritage designation could not be shown to have a negative impact. In fact there appears to be a distinct and generally robust market in designated heritage properties. They generally perform well in the market, with 74% doing average or better than average.The rate of sale among designated properties is as good or better than the ambient market trends and the values of heritage properties tend to be resistant to downturns in the general market.     

Cultural Heritage Management in Post-colonial Polities: not the heritage of the other

Ebel es‐Saqi, a village in the southern hills of Lebanon, emerged from 22 years of Israeli occupation in May 2000. In the ensuing years, several development projects took place in the region with the aim of reviving local economies through tourism, enhancing attachment to the land through employment and spreading environmental awareness. One of these projects, the Ecological Park Project of Ebel es‐Saqi, is the subject of this paper. Through examining local perceptions and reactions to the Ebel es‐Saqi project, this paper explores how local conceptions of landscape evolve in response to political, economic, and social change. The findings of the study, based on in‐depth semi‐structured interviews, suggest that the village landscape is an enabling medium through which traditional culture is preserved, local identities constructed and rural heritage acknowledged. This paper unfolds a conception of landscape based on the day‐to‐day lifestyles of the village community, inherited traditional agricultural practices, valued rural heritage and shared village identity.