Building A New Heritage (RLE Tourism)

Gregory Ashworth, Peter Larkham, Gregory Ashworth, Peter Larkham

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2013
• Print ISBN: 9780415751483
• eBook ISBN: 9781135083311
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Business
• Subtopic: Industria dell'ospitalità e del turismo
• Index: Business

At the heart of the European debate lies the tension between the idea of European unity and individual state identities and nationalisms. This volume provides an insight into this dichotomy by exploring the role of heritage in the new Europe.

The main theme of this book is that a number of possible heritages can be shaped from the European past depending on the purposes for which they are intended. Through different methods of management intervention, heritage can fulfil a variety of functions, becoming a major commercial resource in the form of the tourism industry, or enlisted in the creation and maintenance of place identities.

Leading contributors look at different perceptions of heritage by different cultures, and the social and political consequences of heritage planning. The nature of heritage planning for emerging, spatially fragmented state structures is also discussed.

1

A HERITAGE FOR EUROPE

The need, the task, the contribution

G.J. Ashworth and P.J. Larkbam

THE NEED AND THE ARGUMENT

The halting progress of the post-Second World War nation states of Europe towards some form of supra-national integration has focused principally on economic affairs, and has predominantly been expressed through the establishment of institutions and through legal and administrative measures (see, for example, the majority of the contributions in Hurwitz and Lequesne 1991). With the exception of the short-lived relief and euphoria immediately following the war's end in 1945, these administrative and bureaucratic changes have had little evident root in popular sentiment. The evolution of a trading cartel of nation states into a social, cultural or political entity would seem to require a consensus of popular support or, at the very least, acceptance. This, in turn, requires a reformulation of the mental map of Europeans to encompass a new place-identity at the continental scale.

The idea of the nation state was strongly reinforced by nationalist interpretations of the past, and it is no coincidence that the timing of the rise in interest in the conservation of relict artefacts of the built environment in the latter half of the nineteenth century in Europe coincided with the creation of the nation states of Germany, the Balkans and Italy. It has become clear, in the post-Maastricht discussions in Europe, that the obituaries of the nation state written by the supporters of a new post-nationalist Europe were, to say the least, premature. National identity based on an awareness of a national history is still a vital force in the countries of western Europe, where it had lain somewhat dormant in the years of the post-war settlement and cold war confrontation of the supranational ideologies. In addition, the collapse of the Soviet hegemony in central and eastern Europe is releasing sets of new, or at least previously suppressed, and conflicting nationalisms based upon a rediscovery of national histories. The shaping of a European place-identity to complement, if not replace, national identities has thus never been more urgent or more necessary. The political, economic and ultimately social goals of a European Community (however defined) cannot be achieved by summits, treaties and directives alone. These must receive an echo of consent from Europeans who identify with a supra-national entity. This, in turn, requires a reinterpretation of the past. The central assertion of this volume, contained implicitly or explicitly in all of its constituent Chapters, is thus that a new Europe requires a new past as a precondition for its emergence.

The enormity of this task is daunting. We are aware that history, in the sense of the remembered past, is not the only contributor to the broader concept of heritage, which also draws upon mythologies, folklores and the products of creative imaginations. The focus of this volume is principally upon the use of the surviving physical relics in the built environment, but new ‘historic’ monuments, or monuments to a new, reconstructed or reinterpreted history are also of relevance. This is partly because these relics and monuments have always been of major, and possibly disproportionate, importance in what can be termed ‘public history’; that is, the financing, organization or encouragement by government agencies at various scales of relics, monuments and locations in a declared public interest. It is this public aspect that brings this activity into the arena of public scrutiny and public planning and intervention, even though we are aware that such public histories are only one element in the private histories that form the heritage of individuals. Similarly heritage, however composed, is only one aspect of the identity of places which is composed of much wider individual satisfactions with ways and qualities of life.

Against these limiting caveats, we would argue two fundamental points that render this volume's task not only possible, but in practice inevitable, in one form or another. First, heritage – as we define it – has a proven track record of outstanding success in formulating and reinforcing place-identities in support of particular state entities. We are, therefore, suggesting no more than the addition to, or redirection of, a portion of these efforts. Second, this is an activity in which governments have already assumed large responsibilities, for a variety of ostensible reasons. Major historical resources in most countries are already in official ownership or guardianship, as are many of the most important channels of interpretation. Selected aspects of the past are thus being, and will continue to be, interpreted by public agencies for public objectives, whether overtly stated or not. This has consequent impacts, whether stated or not, upon place-identities.

Finally, set against the daunting task of reformulating the place-identity of a continent by reinterpreting its past, we balance the imperatives of its necessity and its urgency. There is no consensus among the contributors to this volume about the nature of the new European entity that will, or should, emerge over the next decade or so. Authors include all shades of ‘Eurofanaticism’, ‘Euroscepticism’ and even ‘Europhobia’. All, however, believe that Europe at the end of the twentieth century is faced with a choice of repeating the example of the nineteenth century as a fragmented and warring set of nations and regions powered by religious heritages, or of moving into the twenty-first century with a new identity based upon a common and distinctive European heritage. This diversity of views is a strength of the volume.

CHALLENGE AND PROGRESS

The growth and development of a public concern with the surviving relics of the past has a relatively short, but surprisingly volatile, history. A useful early survey of conservation in Europe is given by Brown (1905). Dellheim (1982) shows how the vogue for local archaeological and historical studies grew, particularly in early nineteenth-century Britain, and the consequences of this for the discovery and formulation of local and national interpretations of heritage artefacts. The manner in which the enthusiasm of such small groups of influential and knowledgeable amateurs, and powerful individuals, grew from the second half of the nineteenth century in Europe, and was recognized and formalized in national legislation a hundred years or so later, is related in, among others, Dobby (1978) and Kennett (1972). Concerns for monument identification and preservation have changed (see, for example, Thompson 1981). The shift towards concern for wider areas rather than individual monuments or buildings, and for conservation rather than preservation, with all the implications of this shift in focus for the management of land and building uses, occurred in the middle decades of the twentieth century in almost all European countries (see the comparative studies in Burtenshaw et al. 1991). The last twenty years have been characterized by attempts to manage the problems of success, as more designated buildings, more extensive conservation areas and whole towns have been included in the ever-inflating official lists (see, for example, Jones and Larkham 1993). Not only is the modern use of the past now an inescapable aspect of its preservation, but it is also clear that there now exists a ‘conserver society’ that creates its own landscapes (Relph 1982; Larkham 1992).

The choice of content of the distinctly European heritage, intended to reinforce popular identification with that scale of political entity, requires answers to two main questions. First, which of the many diverse European heritages is to be selected? The current European Community model favours institutional, bureaucratic, free-market, social-capitalist and liberal representative democratic elements. A review of the long history of attempts at achieving European unity, in its various possible forms, reveals many other models based upon quite different heritages, from medieval Christendom to communism. Second, what is to be done with ‘dissonant heritage’? For there is much heritage that does not conform to these currently prevailing norms and objectives. Europe's long history of war, pogrom and persecution between nations, classes, races and religions has left its own legacies, which markedly contradict any theme of harmonious unity. Are these to be ignored, or somehow reinterpreted within the new European heritage product? Dissonance may equally be caused by shifts in population groups that leave behind cultural and material relics that no longer reflect contemporary place symbolisms. Similarly, shifts in dominant ideologies leave memorials of previously prevailing values to haunt and conflict with current interpretations, as can be seen throughout post-communist Europe.

BUILDING A NEW HERITAGE: STRUCTURE AND CONTRIBUTIONS

The contributions to this volume are as varied in their disciplinary approach and selection of regional application as are the expertise and experience of the authors. All, however, are attempting in various ways to bridge the two main gaps in the argument which have briefly been outlined above. The first is the gulf between the resources from the past, frequently in practice being conserved buildings and cities, and their modern uses, which include identity with specified spatial-jurisdictional entities, but which are by no means exclusively so. The past is used in many different ways, and the heritage industry has many customers. The second gap is between those producing heritage and those consuming it, either of which groups may or may not be conscious of their role in this relationship.

The various attempts to bridge these gaps are not always successfully completed, if only because frequently an individual Chapter or author is principally and inevitably concerned with only a part of the total construction. Nevertheless, in bringing together these contributions, this volume is preparing the ground for the summary and synthesis necessary if a new European heritage is to emerge.

Chapters 2 and 3 both attempt to state initial integrating positions. The first does so through the establishment of a simple process model, then deriving sets of concepts from this, hoping thereby to arrive at assumptions which can be used as common currency in the following, more detailed, sectoral analyses and empirical studies. The second examines the nature of the emerging new Europe in terms of broad trends likely to occur in various aspects of the European economy and society in the next three decades; a necessary scene-setting exercise. Although the research reported in this Chapter does not cover the former communist bloc, plausible scenarios are expressed for the rest of Europe, which are clearly applicable to much of eastern Europe in its apparent rush to embrace many elements of western capitalism.

Those agencies concerned with the care and maintenance of preserved artefacts, such as the Welsh Cadw (Chapter 4), clearly all have agendas that are both narrower, but more sharply focused, than ‘heritage’ as defined throughout this volume. Their focus of attention is on objects entrusted to their care, rather than to any actual or possible use of such objects and sites. Visitors often seem to be accepted as a necessary evil, or tolerated as a marginal extra function, to be managed in such a way that the exhibits remain intact. However, what is implied by ‘intact’ varies through time and from place to place, as the contrast between the English and Welsh preference for sanitized, manicured ruins to the French reconstruction shows (Thompson 1981). Similarly, although on a different scale, the German town planning, or more accurately town designing, which is the subject of Chapter 9, may have considerable implications for the shaping of the identities of the cities so treated by ‘vernacularization’. Although these may include the types of political objectives central to this argument, they are equally a result of a much wider range of factors involving changing ideas about the functioning of cities.

The agencies and companies with an interest in the consumption of heritage are similarly concerned with only a part of the heritage process, but they are also responsible for wider functions or activities well beyond the topic of interest here. The visitor to historic sites, as described in Chapter 6, is evaluating heritage against other possible leisure pursuits. The relationship of historic resources and tourism, as analysed in Chapter 5, is very asymmetrical. Tourism may contribute substantially to the financial maintenance of monuments, be used as a justification for their continued existence by their managers, and help to create popular public support for conservation policies. It is, however, interested in actually using only a small proportion of extant historic resources in a limited area of a minority of selected cities. Above all, heritage tourism is only one form of tourism among many, and historical attractions but one set of easily substituted tourism facilities among many others. The current demand for heritage tourism may be high and growing, for all of the reasons described in Chapter 6, but the supply of possible products created from what is, after all, a ubiquitous resource (in so far as all places have a past) is larger and probably growing faster. Conservation may be becoming aware of its increasing dependence upon tourism, but the tourism industry is not so dependent upon the conserved built environment, as the growing number of ‘authentic’ reconstructions and theme parks suggests.

Several chapters that attempt to take a more comprehensive view of both the supply and demand sides do so at the expense of narrowing the types of relationships between producers and consumers considered. Chapter 7 has as its central interest the relationship of the producer and consumer of heritage interpretations, summarized in the insistent and recurring question of ‘whose heritage is it?’ An important contribution of this chapter in particular to the discussion is its consideration of non-participating individuals and groups. Chapter 8 takes the single national case of one small European country and confines itself to the single use of heritage interpretation in underpinning specific, but changing, conceptions to the nation state in at least partial response to the new international realities of European consciousness. Chapter 9 discusses the renaissance of cultural vernacularism in post-war Germany: important in its depiction of selective heritage interpretation and re-creation, particularly in the current phase of redeveloping the immediate post-war comprehensive redevelopments. But this new vernacular is almost a bowdlerization of medieval urban form, particularly in the tourist centres. Chapter 10 presents an overview of the use of urban heritage in the Czech Republic as it makes the transition from communism to post-communism. In this heartland of central European cultural heritage, many urban centres retain their historic form in a dilapidated state: crises occur as this heritage becomes exploited – for both heritage tourism and, in some cases, opencast mining. An interesting point in this case is what happens to the heritage of ‘ethnic cleansing’ half a century after the event, when survivors are few and their descendants widely dispersed?

Finally, the separate studies of producers and managers of resources and products, consumers whether engaged in tourism or other uses of the past, together with the case studies of national and local planning involving heritage, must be brought together so that the basis for policy can be constructed. The final three chapters differ in their attempts at synthesis, in that Chapter 11 can be categorized as pessimistic and minatory, arguing the limits of the use of heritage; Chapter 12 is practical, assessing the future capital city of a new Europe and the contribution of heritage and culture to the selection process; and Chapter 13 is more optimistic, assessing the degree of success in achieving the initial objectives of the argument.

THE WIDER CONTEXT

A volume written by European specialists on an aspect of Europe of such obvious topical importance almost inevitably slips into a Eurocentric myopic exclusivity. It is salutary, from time to time, when considering all the manifold difficulties and problems discussed by the authors in this volume, to consider that the deliberate fostering of a place-identity with a particular political unit through the reformulation and interpretation of the surviving relics of history is a task that has been quite routinely undertaken by almost every post-colonial successor state. If an answer is sought to the question ‘can it actually be done?’ then, in quantitative terms, the rewriting of history to create popular identity with a newly emerging political and governmental structure is more the norm than the exception among contemporary states. In the very different post-colonial cities of San Juan (Puerto Rico) and Zanzibar, McQuillan (1990) shows that conservation has been significant from the national and local perspectives, from the preservation of the Hispanic tradition important in the formation of a Puerto Rican sense of nationhood to the colonial heritage of Zanzibar, where no symbol of the indigenous Swahili culture remained. But, in both cases, preservation served nationalistic needs. In particular, the forging of identity on a continental or near-continental scale from disparate ethnic and social groups is a preoccupation of countries such as the United States, Australia or Canada. In Canada, for example, the first objective of the federal agency responsible for the selection, interpretation and management of historic parks (the National Historic Sites division of the Canadian Parks Service) is stated quite simply as the Postering of a sense of Canadian identity’. Similarly, the Canadian National Capital Commission deliberately used urban conservation in the federal capital, Ottawa, to create a distinctly Canadian feder...

Table of contents

• Cover Page
• Half Title page
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Original Title Page
• Original Copyright Page
• Contents
• List of figures
• List of tables
• List of contributors
• Preface
• 1 A Heritage For Europe: The need, the task, the contribution
• Part I Theories and contexts
• Part II Producers and consumers
• III Choice: whose heritage, which heritage?
• Part IV The achievements, hopes and limitations of heritage planning
• General Index
• Place Index