ABSTRACT
This chapter will discuss how the public's heritage values are elicited in planning processes and consider how contestation could make a significant contribution in representing multifunctional, poly-vocal spaces. To illustrate this, Ekeberg park in Oslo is presented as an example of how multi-layered, contested public values are negotiated between various stakeholders. The park became a democratic arena for the discussion of societal issues concerning heritage, as it embodies many kinds of heritage and values (often challenging) from different periods. Assessing Ekeberg park using different existing, valid heritage valuation methods demonstrated that different approaches can provide varied representations of those values and potentially lead to different implications for the park's future. Discussion around the public park has embodied the Bakhtinian idea of the marketplace as 'Carnivalesque' – where low and high culture create friction – a public space defined as 'the language of the people' that defines the multi-vocality of a place. Recognising this complex, dynamic discourse is suggested as a valuable means of representing multi-layered values for public spaces.
