The Politics of Heritage-Futures: beyond preservation integration and rejuvenation -What are the possibilities and limitations imposed when power and ownership are contested?

Description

The politics around ‘saving the docks’ are superficially incontestable: a local community sees the need to preserve an important heritage asset linked with their own intangible cultural memory. Persuading the owners, the developers and the City Council of the superiority of their alternative plans which will trump the predictable homogeneity of high rise flats and retail should be straightforward.
This paper will try to unravel some of the key tensions related to competing interest over the site’s futures. The landowner must maximise return on the investment in a land asset which has been a drain on resources; the city council is starved of funds for essential services through years of austerity and needs income from both the domestic and business rates that would accrue. The alternative view from the bottom up prioritises jobs, training, employment, heritage and tourism.

Period	12 Feb 2021
Event title	5th AHRC Connected Communities Heritage Network Symposium
Event type	Conference
Degree of Recognition	International