The need for respect and inclusivity in critical heritage studies In 2012, the Association of Critical Heritage Studies (ACHS) was formed at an inaugural meeting on the subject at the University of Gothenburg. For the first time, researchers in heritage studies came together under the same roof to discuss the future of this field. According …
Are Heritage Conservation Practitioners Just Objects to Critique? Read More »
A few years back, Kent State University published a book on Historic Preservation and Urban Change (Terry Schwarz, editor). In it was a paper by a familiar author: Jack D. Elliott, Jr. Elliott had a profound effect on my doctoral research when I came across his 2002 article on “radical preservation” in the National Trust …
Preservation Policy’s Subversion of “Significance” Read More »
Recently, I read an article on the decline in the collaboration of environmental psychologists and architects. In “Architecture’s Brief Love Affair with Psychology Is Overdue a Revival” Carlos Galan-Diaz and Dörte Martens describe how the environmental design and behavior movement that started in the 1970s and peaked in the 1980s now seems to be a …
A Love Affair with Effective Preservation Design? Read More »
Michael Allen’s “The Pro-Development, Anti-Historic Preservationist” on the Next City web site is an insightful overview of the changing public perceptions of historic preservation, including how many people are doing “historic preservation,” but don’t associate themselves with the term or the movement. These individuals don’t join traditional historic preservation organizations, promote their activities, or even …
Bridging the Divide between Preservation Advocacy & Public Perception Read More »
As an expert in historic preservation pedagogy and curriculum design, I often examine the curricula of post-secondary degree programs that address tangible and/or intangible heritage. One theme that consistently emerges is that, in the United States, in these curricula, “heritage studies” is often treated as a functional equivalent to public history. But, most importantly, the …
I was reading an article today by Felipe Criado-Boado y David Barreiro, “El patrimonio era otra cosa” (“Heritage Was Something Else”), which emphasizes that the formation of the meanings of cultural heritage is an open process subject to negotiation. What struck my attention was their argument that the conflicts inherent in these meanings should be “normalized”; …
Finding the “Soul” in Preservation Policy and the Work It Drives Read More »
Several years ago, I read John Schofield’s (2009) description of “allocentric” versus “autocentric” heritage. He associates allocentric heritage with objective, scientific, fixed, and detached meanings and autocentric heritage with subjective, emotional, and changing meanings. The former is associated with orthodox conservation theory and practice and the latter with heterodox conservation theory and practice. (Smith’s [2006] …
Science vs. Emotion in Built Heritage Conservation with Some Examples Read More »
In 2012, my colleague, Eleftherios Pavlides, who teaches environmental design research in the architecture program at Roger Williams University helped spearhead the creation of the Environmental Design Research Education Knowledge Network at the Environmental Design Research Association (EDRA). While environment-behavior research has foundations going back to the 1960s, this knowledge network was the first time …
Teaching Environment-behavior Research in an Historic Preservation Degree Program? Read More »
One of the things I really love about the Environmental Design Research Association (EDRA) is the multidisciplinary nature of their conference. It’s one of the few venues where it doesn’t really matter what your discipline is; instead, it’s the particular topics that people address that are most important. At the conference, it’s not unusual to …
How Conservation Social Science Can Inform Historic Preservation Read More »
In 2015, I was invited to participate in the “Future of Preservation” meeting at the UMass, Amherst campus that was co-organized by Max Page from UMass, Amherst, Tom Mayes from the National Trust for Historic Preservation, and Randall Mason from the University of Pennsylvania. In preparation for the meeting, all of the participants were asked …
Preservation Policy Barriers for Community Participation Read More »
