Local Heritage, Global Context

'Sense of place' has become a familiar phrase, commonly used in professional and domestic situations to describe the emotional attachment people have to the places they hold dear and into which they are rooted. Heritage management policy and practices are increasingly moving away from state-led interventions and actions and instead attempting take account of 'the local', and draw on the views and expressions of interest amongst local communities. Important in achieving this is having a better grasp of what people mean by sense of place, and assessing its uses and implications. Bringing together a diverse range of practitioners from NGO, agency and cultural heritage/archaeological backgrounds, this volume reviews the meanings of 'sense of place', and where it is useful in the context of heritage management practice. It breaks new ground in specifically addressing place attachment from a cultural heritage perspective, and drawing on local and national interests from a diversity of cultural situations. Following a theoretical and contextual introduction, drawing on writings and ideas from human geography, heritage, planning and the arts, the chapters, illustrated with case studies from around Europe and Australia, are grouped into section which address key themes. These include: rootedness amongst communities in the past; policy-making for accommodating senses of place within planning and management, for land- sea- and cityscapes; official versus unofficial views; and, the difficult balance often between planning policies that extend from regional to global scale, and local actions and perceptions.