The two opposing impacts of heritage making on local communities: residents’ perceptions: a Portuguese case

Abstract

This article examines the impact associated with the making of heritage and tourism at a destination. Special attention is paid to the residents’ perceptions of the impact. The examination is focused on the rural village of Sortelha, in Portugal, where, in recent decades, a state-led programme was implemented in order to renovate the historic buildings and built fabric and to generate benefits for the local community. Based on ethnographic materials collected in 2003, 2009 and 2013, the study demonstrates that the making of heritage may give rise to two opposing impacts simultaneously – increased social cohesion and place pride, on the one hand, and envy and competition (and, hence, social atomisation), on the other hand – and that residents are entirely cognisant of the tension between the two. The study has the potential to contribute to both the theoretical and the applied literature on heritage making.

Keywords:

• built heritage sites
• conservation
• tourism
• impact
• residents’ perceptions

Acknowledgements

The material is drawn from two research projects funded by the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology, namely, my Ph.D. degree and postdoctoral research projects (SFRH/BD/6451/2001 and SFRH/BPD/34229/2006, respectively). I am grateful to this institution for the support. I am also grateful to the three anonymous International Journal of Heritage Studies reviewers for their productive work. Special thanks go out to the inhabitants of Sortelha for their contribution to this study.

Notes

1. Viscount is a nobility title characteristic of the Portuguese monarchy. In the Middle Ages, viscounts received from the King a piece of land, where they had the power to govern according to their will, thereby assisting in the administration of the kingdom.

2. These agencies disappeared in 2007, as a result of the creation of the Portuguese Institute for the Management of Architectural and Archaeological Heritage.

3. The mediaeval castle was accorded official protection status as a ‘national monument’ in 1910, while the pillory was designated a ‘building of public interest’ in 1933. A pillory is a stone column placed in a public place in a town or village where criminals were exposed and punished. An artefact is considered to be of ‘public interest’ when it represents a cultural value of national importance, but for which the system of protection for ‘national monuments’ is considered excessive.

4. All translations by the author.

5. The tourist office was created in Sortelha in mid-2003, but the information produced by it until 2006 is unreliable, as it did not operate on a daily basis and its previous location was less visible than its current position at the entrance of the citadel.