Since its launch in 2012, already five volumes have been published within the book series on Archaeological Heritage Management, edited by Douglas Comer, Helaine Silverman, and Willem Willems. They range in scope and methodology, from a case study on Petra, Jordan (Comer, 2012) and a presentation of current geospatial and space technologies for mapping (Comer and Harrower, 2013), to volumes on the archaeology of interdependence (Comer, 2013), globalization (Biehl and Prescot, 2013), and the framework for heritage management in China (Shepherd and Yu, 2013). The goal of this series is to present timely and concise outlines of cutting-edge research.
This review highlights two of these five books, exploring distinctive regional perspectives on heritage management and sustainable development. Those are, respectively, Heritage Management, Tourism, and Governance in China: Managing the Past to Serve the Future (Shepherd and Yu, 2013) and Heritage in the Context of Globalisation: Europe and the Americas (Biehl and Prescot, 2013). Together, they provide the state of the art on heritage management, from a Chinese and a Euro-American perspective. Although the one is a monograph (China) and the other a collection of edited papers, both address a similar range of topics in the field of urban heritage, such as heritage policy and politics, the benefits for local community, cultural diversity and identity, and development vs conservation.
Current theory on cultural heritage management defines heritage management as “managing thoughtful change” and recommends a landscape-based approach towards heritage management (Bloemers et al., 2011; Bandarin and van Oers, 2012; Taylor and Lennon, 2012). Over the past decades the definition of heritage management has been evolving from an object-based approach towards a more all-inclusive approach, which includes notions such as the intangible, setting and context, and even development, accompanied by a greater consideration of the socio-economic function of (historic) cities (Fairclough et al., 2008; Veldpaus et al., 2013). This is a development in need of further exploration in both Chinese and Euro-American context (van Oers and Pereira, 2013).
The dilemma that is facing urban heritage properties is that the objective of conservation is being confronted with a constantly evolving urban context (Pendlebury et al., 2009). China is facing those challenges of conservation in a context of accelerated escalation of economic development in great intensity. This is the topic question tackled by Shepherd and Yu (2013) when focusing on heritage management in China. As suggested by van Oers and Pereira (2013) a more integrated approach, such as the Historic Urban Landscape recommendation (UNESCO, 2011) could be helpful for China in its aim to integrate heritage management and urban development.
Shepherd and Yu (2013) argue that significant and real changes have taken place over the last decades in the culture industry of China, the autonomy of the researcher, for example, increased and Maoist ideology no longer trumps scientific inquiry. Such changes have strongly influenced heritage management in China. The understanding of both the history and evolution of the concept of heritage in China is highlighted, and thoroughly explained and illustrated by examples throughout Chapters One to Four. Chapter Three, for example, elaborates on the subtitle of the book managing the past to serve the present, which echoes Mao's aim to use and make the past serve the present (p. 15), while leaving the aim to “produce history” behind.
The legal and political context of China are taken as the backdrop against which topics such as sense of identity, dealing with inheritance, and the concept of “scenic spots” are explained, as are the ways of inventorying, categorizing, and listing heritage properties. The differences between the concept of heritage in China and Euro-American perspectives are explained in Chapter Four, including discussions on authenticity, the division between nature and culture, and the issue of copy and the original, complemented by examples to clarify the nuances. The authors also position such differences in the global context and they question if the “preached” cultural diversity towards concepts of heritage management is really being practiced.
This elaborated introduction sets the stage for the subsequent chapters on the economic and social impact of heritage management on local communities. Both topics are closely related to the national and international tourism industries. Accordingly, heritage properties tend to become sources of revenue, and can become the foundation of (local) economic development projects. Though, if the only aim of these projects is to maximize profits, such approach, at least from a long-term perspective, often has a significant negative impact on the local community and its cultural heritage. The final conclusion comprises a plea for the integration between preserving the past and improving current reality.
Biehl and Prescott (2013) present and discuss the main contributions from two international meetings between archaeologists in America and Europe, during the 76th Society for American Archaeology Annual Conference (Sacramento, USA, April 2011) and the 17th European Association of Archaeologists annual conference (Oslo, September 2011). Both roundtables focused on themes such as traditions and legal matters, globalization and national identity, and teaching and research in cultural heritage.
The introduction and conclusion by Biehl and Prescott are opinionated, but clear and well-defined; whereas the relatively short case discussions, though illustrative, vary in depth and approach. In this volume, the importance of reviewing theory and practice concerning the definition of the concept of heritage, its use and users, is argued. As Shepherd and Yu (2013), they too link the success of conservation to active engagement of the present and the needs of future generations. Biehl and Prescott (2013), however, underline that a “genuinely and active self-critique […] is not sufficiently developed” (p. 118). Therefore, they take such self-critical attitude towards their field of archaeological heritage management to set the research agenda for the future. Their conclusion is that heritage research, as a field, should be repositioned, because a rather unwanted schism between heritage management and traditional archaeology has occurred. In this light, they discuss the need for educational curricula to change for a better balance between fundamental and applied knowledge, as academic competence and public outreach are equally important. Another aim formulated is that the field should become more outward looking, and more international and interdisciplinary discourse and networks should be established, in order to really exploit all knowledge and resources available. In addition, the potentials and limitations of new tools and techniques such as the “digital world” should be further explored and seriously theorized. Their plea for increased attention for the international level is also an interesting conclusion. Though the field of “best practices” is important, and steadily growing in terms of field experts and research funding, the challenges faced are becoming largely globalized, and within reach of an ever-growing number of people. Biehl and Prescott (2013), therefore, in contrast to Shepherd and Yu (2013), emphasize the increased need for research and policy making at the transnational and international level.
The contributions in both books are primarily to the state-of-the art from the perspective of the local or regional contexts in relation to international perspectives. Shepherd and Yu (2013) discuss the economic and social impact of heritage in China and the often complex relation between the local, national, and global level. The fundamental topic for Biehl and Prescott (2013) is also how to manage the interaction those levels. Complementary, they seek for understanding on how to generate research and stimulate knowledge-based management, which can be applied to local policies and practices, and inform and improve research in return. Together, these books set out an interesting research agenda on archaeological heritage management and sustainable development. In addition, the book series on Archaeological Heritage Management, with five volumes in two years, is rapidly becoming appreciated as a platform to enable the international debate and presentation of research results.
