Towards a shared understanding of the concept of
heritage in the European context

Petti, L; Trillo, C; Ncube Makore, BC

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to develop an understanding of commonalities and differences in the concept of cultural heritage in Europe. This was achieved through a comprehensive academic
and non-academic literature review focused on different definitions and conceptualisations related to cultural heritage internationally and in the European context. This is complemented with a
comparative study in three European countries. This paper frames cultural heritage using the foundation set up by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO).
It further discusses the European actors involved in defining heritage today. Finally, it focuses on three European countries and verifies that they share an understanding of cultural heritage including classifications, categorisation and heritage values. Findings from the overall study show how the definition of cultural heritage across Europe is reasonably homogeneous, and this is confirmed by the analysis of the three chosen test case studies. This finding is relevant to policy makers as it allows the support of potential common frameworks for heritage management at the European level, including risk management and risk reduction common methodologies. Further studies will shed light on the implementation issues which may arise from the creation of a common European framework for cultural heritage management, with emphasis on risk management and risk reduction
of cultural heritage

Citation

heritage in the European context. https://doi.org/10.3390/heritage2030155

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Aug 21, 2019
• Publication Date: Aug 30, 2019
• Deposit Date: Sep 2, 2019
• Publicly Available Date: Sep 2, 2019
• Journal: Heritage
• Print ISSN: 2531-2544
• Volume: 2
• Issue: 3
• Pages: 2531-2544
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.3390/heritage2030155
• Publisher URL: https://doi.org/10.3390/heritage2030155
• Related Public URLs: https://www.mdpi.com/journal/heritage
• Additional Information: Funders : Italian Ministry for University and Research - PRIN program—Research Projects of National Interest; Projects : “Protecting the Cultural Heritage from water-soil interaction related threats”; Grant Number: 2015EAM9S5,