This chapter focuses on the function of heritage studies in the role of human development and sustainable heritage protection. The chapter details the importance of sustainable heritage development and the importance of identity-building, examining their role comprehensively in conjunction with UNESCO conventions, as well as epistemological and paradigmatic reflections from studies ranging from cultural anthropology to material heritage studies. The text also focuses on developments and challenges within the field of heritage studies and the application of theoretical approaches within the study. Finally, the study reflects on the ways in which heritage, with a focus on world heritage, have developed and changed over the course of time, and possibilities to address negative developments.
TopEpistemological And Paradigmatic Reflections
The identity-building function of heritage is a holistic and complex paradigm, which needs to be developed through a similar complex theoretical system. This is the heritage studies system as it has been developed, and since 1999 implemented by the author and their team of former UNESCO Chair on Heritage Studies at BTU Cottbus. The heritage studies system has been implemented through the World Heritage Studies Master’s Programme, and since 2010 through the following PhD programme. The Institute Heritage Studies (IHS) at the Internationale Akademie Berlin (INA) has continued the programme through many projects; among others the project Transboundary European World Heritage - a Topic for UNESCO Associated Schools.1
The intention for developing Heritage Studies as a paradigm for sustainable safeguarding of the heritage of humankind was, and still is, to develop a holistic understanding of heritage as promoter for sustainable human development based on the 17 goals defined in the Agenda 2030 (United Nations, 2015). It can be said that this concept of Heritage Studies has been accepted worldwide.
Efforts to position Heritage Studies in a disciplinary manner have shaped the construct of heritage in the context of a holistic understanding of heritage and have determined heritage itself as a dynamically constructed phenomena. Aspects of heritage studies were and are presented and discussed, particularly by British publishers such as Blackwell Publishing, Manchester University Press Series and Oxford University Press, but also by IHS publications. International journals have raised awareness amongst many communities concerning the topic of heritage. A complex understanding of heritage could be constructed and disseminated through different topics such as: Heritage and Identity, Heritage and Multiculturalism, Expressions of Intangible Heritage, Tangible Heritage and Spaces, Legal Aspects of Heritage or Heritage and Local Communities, as well as Management of Heritage.
In scientific discourse, it is of equal importance the concept of “Critical Heritage Studies”2 based on a postcolonial approach with Laurajane Smith (2006) as editor, or the concept of “Material Heritage Studies” 3 based mainly on material sciences such as architecture, urban planning or conservation and preservation. Heritage Studies discourse understood as Heritage Transformation Processes and Human Development is the research focus of the IHS at INA and has been published via the Heritage Studies Series with de Gruyter from 2012 – 2015, and with Springer Nature International Publishing since 2017.