The Socially Constructed Nature of Heritage
It is now widely acknowledged that heritage is a social construct based on people's selection and evaluation,rather than a given and objective reality that can be undoubtedly determined(Smith,2006;Ashworth,2012).
According to UNESCO(2009),“Heritage is our legacy from the past,what we live with today and what we pass on to future generations.”Nuryanti(1996)points out that heritage is a part of the cultural tradition of any society,while Howard and Pinder(2003)underline the fact that heritage involves architectural and historical values,as well as the communities“whose heritage is encapsulated in daily routines”.(https://www.daowen.com)
All these arguments point to the same direction:that heritage relies heavily on a social factor which selects and determines its subject depending on a number of values,meanings and other pragmatic or emotional reasons(Hobson,2004).In this sense,“the past is continually rewritten,a product and reflection of a contemporary society”(Lynch,1972).Therefore,heritage may be considered as a process,outcome and experience rather than as a given object,artifact or a site(Ashworth,2012;Smith,2006).The last three concepts are argued to be resources of heritage rather than heritage in themselves,which are derived from the past,selected and transformed into experiences in and for the present with the intention to pass them on to future generations.
The critical question is who makes the selection and for what reasons.Paillard(2012)notes that heritage“has been constructed,or even invented,along history by different actors”.However,selection has usually been made by experts and policy makers based predominantly on architectural or historical criteria(Ashworth,2012).Empowered interests and ideologies(Negussie,2012)have systematically dominated on heritage selection while the importance of local community's involvement in heritage selection and management has only recently been acknowledged,as it is discussed further below.Indeed,it is only in the past twenty year that the role of local communities and the need for active and meaningful engagement has been highlighted at academic and institutional level,whilst appropriate and effective ways of engagement that fit in a given context remain a central inquiry in relevant research.