ABSTRACT
Introduction The title of the conference that stimulated this chapter, Engaging Conservation, explicitly signifies an evolution towards a more inclusive practice of conservation. Earlier chapters in this volume have explored the background to this discursive shift in the heritage sector. The argument pioneered by Smith (2006), that there is a need to problematise and understand the competing values ‘attributed to heritage’, has arguably formed a new orthodoxy and underpins current approaches to identifying and managing heritage, which attempt to account for multiple, non-expert ‘communal’ interpretations. This paradigm is evident in both recent scholarship and academic critiques (Smith 2006; Fairclough et al. 2008; Avrami 2009), and in uk policy (English Heritage 2008; DCLG 2012). Taken together, they provide a theoretical rationale and several methodologies for understanding heritage as perceived by communities and other stakeholders, in addition to the ‘authorised’ expert.
