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Review of Myers David., Smith Stacie Nicole., and Ostergren Gail., eds., Consensus Building, Negotiation, and Conflict Resolution for Heritage Place Management. 210 pp. Getty Conservation Institute, 2016
Heritage is a range of valued properties emerging through interactions among peoples, time, and places. In heritage management planning, perceived value has been the most contentious concept, not only proclaiming the existence of heritage places but also identifying their meanings and significances. Since the initial discussion of international heritage was recommended by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) in 1972, the realm of the heritage agenda has been expanded widely in terms of its scope, from tangible to intangible, and its vision, from state centered, to regional, to global. UNESCO’s early promotions to identify, protect, and preserve cultural and natural heritage has upheld the idea of universal value by appealing to humanitarian goals and the necessity of collective protection, while, at the same time, highlighting the value of each listed heritage item as a precious shared legacy to be embraced by all mankind. The current UNESCO governing rules and regulations reflect such intellectual approaches and historical evaluations in order to establish heritage protection laws, policies, and technical guidelines to safeguard the crisis of heritage places on both local and state levels as well as to oversee a series of international resolutions to protect the most threatened places and peoples across the globe. Despite diverse levels of effort to protect heritage items, heritage specialists have been continuously confronted with a range of complex, challenging, and controversial issues regarding the protection of heritage and its diverse values. In many cases, acute tensions arise among the multiplicity of stakeholder groups who have different assessments of the intrinsic value of heritage steeped in the past, developing appropriate uses for the present audience and envisioning a sustainable strategy for the future.
To explore the concepts and strategic application of consensus building, negotiation, and conflict resolution in the heritage management planning processes,...