Assessing the Social Values of Heritage

Assessing the Social Values of Heritage considers how social values can be better understood and incorporated into the day-to-day work of managing and conserving the historic environment.

Drawing together major strands of thinking from critical heritage studies, ethnography and social research, and science and technology studies, the book explores the theoretical and practical tensions that shifting discourses on value and contemporary significance have created for heritage practitioners. Presenting seven case studies of social value assessments, it discusses how qualitative methods and participatory approaches can be applied in a variety of real-world contexts, revealing the complex interactions that characterise these dynamic knowledge production processes. The book provides unique insights into methods as more-than-technical processes that determine not only how, but which knowledge is (re)produced, shaping understandings of social values. It concludes that bringing social values into heritage practice requires not only new methods and approaches, but new ways of working with emergent understandings and multiple types of expertise. In response to the challenges - and the opportunities - identified, the concept of a ‘methods assemblage’ is employed, offering an effective model for more reflexive and inclusive future practice in this area.

Assessing the Social Values of Heritage provides the first systematic, comparative review of methods for social values assessment. It will be essential reading for practitioners, academics and scholars engaged in the study of heritage, participatory research, and people-centred methods.