Eva Stegmeijer (CHAN) - Session 3 - 1st InHeriT International Conference Athens 2016
Channel: InHeriT_ ERASMUS+ KA2 Adult Education
Date: 03/10/2016

Session 3 Cultural Heritage in the Context of Economic Development Policy and Planning

Eva Stegmeijer, Cultural Heritage Agency, Netherlands and Joks Janssen, Wageningen University and Research Center, Netherlands
Heritage as sector, factor, and vector: conceptualizing the shifting relationship between heritage and spatial planning

Over the last decades heritage conservation activity across Western Europe has been shifting. More dynamic, developmental and holistic approaches of cultural heritage have emerged. One of the major drivers of this development-oriented outlook on built heritage has been of economic nature: adaptation to new demands can guarantee ongoing functionality and an financial base for maintenance. Notwithstanding this rather instrumental impetus, there are more fundamental legitimations for a more dynamic view, drawing on the notion that heritage evolves over time, as do the meanings attributed to it. 
Several authors have discussed these shifts in principles and approaches in both heritage management theory and practice. However, most studies compare the ‘old (preservationist) concept’ to the ‘new (dynamic) concept’ or even propose to highlight the one over the other. In this perspective, new ideas seem revolutionary and rootless. In this research, the assumption is that there is an evolution, and thus a relation, between old and new concepts. This relation is seldom discussed, let alone revealed in a systematic way in the context of spatial planning and sustainable development. 
By sketching on the evolution of heritage conservation in the Netherlands, we propose a conceptual framework of the increasingly interlinked nature of heritage conservation and the spatial-economic domain. This conceptualization describes the evolution of three approaches to heritage conservation and development in shaping spatial planning outcomes: heritage as a spatial sector (preserving by isolating the heritage resource from spatial dynamics), via an approach in which it is regarded as a factor in spatial dynamics (heritage as an asset and stimulus to urban regeneration), to regarding it as what we have termed a vector, determining the direction of spatial projects and developments. 

CULTURAL HERITAGE AS ECONOMIC VALUE
Economic Benefits, Social Opportunities and Challenges of Cultural Heritage for Sustainable Development 
11-13 May 2016, Kastri, Athens