Big changes are in the works here at Heritage & Society. This is the last issue under our joint editorship. Dr Elizabeth Brabec, Professor of Landscape Architecture and Regional Planning at University of Massachusetts Amherst, has been appointed as the new editor of the journal. As some of you may be aware, Dr Brabec became director of the Center for Heritage & Society at UMass Amherst last year, and she has a long commitment to international heritage work. We are confident that she will do an excellent job in growing the journal and carrying on the mission of Heritage & Society well into the future. Our editorial assistant, Erica Kowsz, is also moving on after two years with the journal. We wish to thank Angela Labrador (book review editor), and Cornelius Holtorf (Associate Editor) for their constant and significant contributions to the journal these past five years. We are also negotiating a transition to a submission and review platform provided by our new publisher, Taylor & Francis, which will streamline our submission and publications process. These are exciting times for the journal, and we appreciate your continued readership.
This issue of the journal highlights the goals that were set out in the newly named journal of Heritage & Society in 2011, that is “to document emerging alternative approaches to the conservation, cultivation, and sustainability of collective memory through tangible and intangible manifestations of heritage.” In this issue, we present four research articles and three book reviews that cover the wide terrain of global heritage issues. The paper by Liam Brady, “Contemporary Indigenous Relationships to Archaeological Features,” addresses one of the most critical questions facing heritage professionals: how do we assess and measure heritage values cross-culturally? More specifically he seeks to create a more holistic approach to the study of Indigenous heritage through a study of the contemporary social properties of rock art. Rock art is clearly a very tangible kind of heritage. However, as Brady points out, the contemporary meanings and values of rock art are context specific and reaffirm cultural identity in the present—even when the rock art itself is quite ancient. Through case studies, Brady also demonstrates the importance of rock art for highlighting the connections among cultural heritage, ontological security, and health and well-being in the present.
Two articles in this issue explore the relationship between heritage practitioners and the socio-political context of their work. Grabow and Walker critique the impact of the post-processual paradigm in archaeology. Specifically they argue that despite claims of empowerment and multivocality, post-processualism has led to a depoliticization of archaeology that has negatively impacted attempts to apply archaeology to issues of social justice. The article by Lagerqvist examines the impact of the 2008 global economic crisis on heritage management in Ireland. In particular, she demonstrates that short-term responses and economic efficiency grew in importance, while long-term projects and priorities without clear revenues were set aside. She argues that the long-term impacts of such decisions will be felt for years to come and call into question issue of power in making decisions about heritage priorities.
In the last research article, King et al. address a hot issue in heritage studies and many other fields: the cultural value of digital engagement. More specifically, they review case studies in digital heritage practice and present the results of an online survey of heritage professionals as to the value of digital curation, modeling, and communication, and the production of knowledge about the past and its relevance in the present. They review a number of the challenges and opportunities, and conclude that it is critical that heritage professionals continue to bridge the practices between their own circle and their various audiences in order to create valuable engagements using the wide array of digital methods that are increasingly available.
In this issue, we also present three book reviews on wide-ranging topics in heritage studies. The first book reviewed is the revised edition of The Past is a Foreign Country, by David Lowenthal. In the first year of the new incarnation of this journal, David Lowenthal published a distinguished lecture (“Why the Past Matters,” Volume 4, Number 2) in these pages, and in that article he shared many of his perspectives on what would eventually appear in this revised edition of his book. In his review, Paul Graves-Brown describes the book as “entertaining and informative,” and calls it a “basic resource for anyone teaching on or studying the past in all its forms…” Nevertheless, he does offer some critiques, including the fact that the revised edition seems to offer clearer contrasts in his analysis of views concerning the past. Perhaps this reflects both the increasing global understanding of the complex nature of heritage and its increasing importance in the contemporary world, as well as the muted iconoclasticism that comes with maturity.
The second book, The Semiotics of Heritage Tourism, by Emma Waterton and Steve Watson (reviewed by Amy Clarke) is a theoretical semiotic analysis of heritage tourism through the notion of “affect.” The authors encourage heritage scholars and practitioners to think more deeply about what occurs “within” heritage tourism, specifically “the relationship between bodies, experience and representation.”
The last review by Gustav Wollentz, War and Cultural Heritage (edited by Marie Louise Sørensen and Dacia Viejo-Rose), presents an overview of nine chapters/case studies from across Europe. The book employs a biographical approach to chart the phases that heritage within a post-war landscape undergoes. Wollentz concludes that the volume teaches us the “futility of trying to control and reduce the meaning” of place. He also concludes that the volume is “one of the most nuanced and intellectually refreshing attempts … at understanding the complexity of post-war heritage,” which is clearly an extremely important issue on a global scale.