Heritage and Policy

Heritage represents the material – and recently also immaterial – culture of past societies that survives in the present and the process through which this culture is re-evaluated and re-used in contemporary settings. Already in the 19th century when the notion of heritage emerged it was engrained in the policy making of governments and used as an instrument to foster historical consciousness. Nowadays a wide range of institutions, organizations, and international bodies invest in the preservation and presentation of heritage which has become a versatile medium of social, cultural and political recognition, claims for rights, as well as a source of exchange and economic development. Additionally, heritage has become increasingly tied to supranational claims and understandings made by international actors such as UNESCO and the EU. As the state’s role in daily life has grown, so heritage policy has become increasingly developed and formalized to achieve a variety of policy objectives.