ABSTRACT
This chapter suggests that heritage at the local scale is significantly different in content, function and thus management, from nation-state or supra-national heritage. People and objects can of course be highly mobile but, even so, they can be assembled at, or associated with, specific locations. Historical personalities can become place-bound in the sense of Robin Hood at Nottingham, Mozart at Salzburg and the Jolly Swagman' at Winton, Queensland. As identity is a major motive for the creation of heritage, then it is no surprise that heritage is the principal instrument for shaping distinctive local representations of place, which can be exploited for external promotion as well as in strengthening the identification of inhabitants with their localities. The social, political and economic uses of heritage are all apparent at the local scale. Local administrations have as great a need to justify their rule through the establishment of historic continuity and legitimacy as do the national governments.
