Aesthetic judgment

Gaiger, Jason (2010). Aesthetic judgment. In: West, Susie ed. Understanding Heritage in Practice. Manchester: Manchester University Press.

URL: http://www.manchesteruniversitypress.co.uk/catalog...

Abstract

[About the book]:

This book examines the opening up of heritage to new audiences and new meanings by looking beyond the ways in which heritage is offered to the ways in which heritage is valued. Jay Brown’s heritage walking tours of Brixton, with their emphasis on forgotten aspects of African-Caribbean heritage, show heritage to be a form of social action, both as an intervention in official heritage provision and through the community-building aspects of unofficial heritage processes. By contrast, historical re-enactments and processions construct heritage as performance, providing public displays of national pride or opposition to heritage interpretations.

The book’s focus on how heritage is delivered and consumed reveals how certain objects, places and practices may be considered worthy of protection and promotion, even though they may not be recognised by governments or listed on official heritage registers. Critical heritage studies speaks to the challenges that different understandings of ownership, value and significance pose for official heritage, and to the ideologies that underlie the use of heritage in keeping the past alive.

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