ABSTRACT
Discussing the meaning of industrial heritage in the 1980s with people from the world of culture in Catalonia and later in other countries, it was apparent that there was a degree of confusion surrounding the concept. Some of those interested in industrial heritage had arrived through trying to save a particular local factory, steam engine, mine or whatever. But they had no clear references or theoretical ‘corpus’ on which to base the defence of these physical remains, to which mainstream society, especially those with the power to determine the policies governing the cultural heritage, attributed little value.
