Valuing the Historic Environment: a critical review of existing approaches to social value

This project seeks to advance understanding about how experience of the historic environment creates forms of social value, including its contribution to people's sense of identity, memory, and belonging. Value is central to how aspects of the historic environment are designated, managed and conserved as heritage. For much of the twentieth century this was primarily linked to what have been seen as intrinsic historic, aesthetic and scientific values. More recently there has been increasing emphasis, in both public policy and conservation practice, on the social values derived from active use of the historic environment. There are considerable difficulties surrounding how these different kinds of value should be weighed up against one another. This is exacerbated by a lack of understanding about social value, which falls largely outside of the kinds of expert knowledge traditionally associated with the heritage sector. Furthermore, social value is not readily captured by quantitative methods or easily subjected to instrumental forms of cost-benefit analysis.

Through a critical review of existing research, this project will examine current knowledge and understanding of social value. Encompassing the significance of the historic environment to contemporary communities, social value relates to people's sense of identity, distinctiveness, belonging, and place, as well as forms of memory and spiritual association. Particular attention will be focused on the modes of experience, engagement and practice that inform people's relationships with the historic environment. The project will consider the thorny issue of how to deal with the dynamic, iterative, and embodied nature of these relationships and the value created through them. It will also explore increasing evidence that points of crisis and conflict, including those associated with difficult and traumatic forms of memory, are particularly potent contexts for the creation of value. The range of methodologies used in existing research and surveys will be critically discussed, along with their application in the spheres of heritage conservation and public policy. Finally, the appropriateness of a conceptual apparatus that tends to quantify and fix values will be examined. The possibilities for capturing more fluid processes of valuing the historic environment will be considered, along with the implications for other spheres of the Arts and the Cultural Sector.

* The principle beneficiaries of this project are conservation practitioners and heritage managers. They currently face considerable difficulties in terms of defining and measuring social value in relation to a range of questions, contexts, agendas and resources. This critical synthesis, drawing on a wide range of academic and applied research, will advance understanding of the role of the historic environment providing a basis for effective and rigorous narratives about social value. It will highlight gaps in understanding and identify fresh directions. Existing methodologies will be evaluated with a view to their practical application in the heritage sector, as well as in academic research. The project will provide a means for the heritage sector to move forward and deal with this complex issue in a more systematic and effective manner.

* Partner organisations will gain additional benefits through the opportunity to help shape the project in its early stages and to contribute to the critical review process in the context of the project workshop. The project will feed into their ongoing and future work, informing assessment of social value and its place in decision-making. The PI is already in discussion with three of the organizations about potential future projects that would build on this one.

* Other professions in the sphere of Arts and Culture would also benefit from this critical review. The opportunity it offers to explore distinctions between what are seen as intrinsic and instrumental values will provide a point of critical departure and debate for other spheres. Issues relating to the preservation of social values, and how they can be weighed up against historical, aesthetic and scientific values, will be of benefit to those working in museums and archives. This project's critical exploration of the problems created by increasing pressure to identify fixed values and measure the instrumental impact of particular resources/events will be especially important in terms of identifying new directions and approaches which can accommodate the fluid and iterative nature of value in the Arts and the Cultural Sector.

* Members of the public will benefit indirectly through the impact of the research on future conservation of the historic environment. In particular this critical review will highlight studies that provide insight into the unofficial and informal meanings and practices that mediate people's relationships with the historic environment. It will question the tendency to see social values as more transitory and/or superficial forms of value, in contrast to forms of value defined by expert judgement, such as historical and scientific value. Increasing evidence that the historic environment can provide a focus for productive memory-work dealing with displacement, conflict and trauma will also be considered. Overall, the project should provide a platform for a more sensitive and systematic treatment of social value from the point of view of contemporary communities.

* For Academic Beneficiaries see dedicated section.