Critical Approaches to Heritage for Development

In contrast to a significant recent volume in this area (Labadi, ed. 2019 see below), this volume does not focus only on international aid, but instead considers a range of different actors with diverse approaches to and understandings of ‘development’.

This volume does not only engage with formalised heritage, such as museums, monuments, and memorials. Contributions consider a range of ostensibly past-focused practices and interventions that may not be explicitly referred to as ‘heritage’ by the actors concerned. This marks a contrast with significant earlier work in the field (e.g. Basu and Modest eds., 2014 see below).

Contributors to this volume include both scholars from a range of fields and practitioners, working in museums, UNESCO, and local government. This will help to ensure the content is engaged with contemporary practice as well as theory, and the relevance of the volume to students and practitioners.

This volume will not comprise a set of disparate case studies. Rather, authors will critically review how heritage informs the pursuit of development within a broad general field, illustrating this with examples drawn from their own research. This will ensure consistency in focus across the contributions and the forum style conclusion will allow leading scholars from both Critical Heritage Studies and Development Studies to identify the key thematic points commonalities emerging from ostensibly diverse areas of scholarship and practice.