Cultural heritage in socio-economic development: local and global perspectives.

Abstract

In an era of holistic and integrative thinking, the potential of culture and heritage as both elements and tools for socio-economic development has been gaining the attention and imagination of scholars and policy makers alike. This article provides some idea of the contemporary culture-and-development discourse, followed by an overview of heritage-centered development trends and practices across a wide geographical span. Examples primarily focus on tangible heritage and illustrate a shift toward the inclusion of cultural heritage as a central feature of community and economic revitalization. Reference is made to parallel trends that can be observed in England, Canada, Australia, and Japan, as well as in developing countries--although the former examples are given more attention. The aim is to show the omnipresence of the expanding social context and the relevance of cultural heritage. The discussion illustrates its significant potential and the emerging global/local policy thread that advocates for integrating culture within development strategies.

En cette ere de reflexion holistique et integrative, l'idee que la culture et le patrimoine peuvent constituer des elements du developpement economique et servir celui ci attire l'attention et frappe l'imagination des universitaires, comme celle des responsables des politiques. L'auteur de cet article presente quelques unes des idees du discours sur la <>, suivies d'un apercu des tendances et des pratiques en matiere de developpement axe sur le patrimoine, sur une vaste etendue geographique. Les exemples utilises mettent l'accent sur le patrimoine materiel comme element central de la dynamisation de la collectivite et de l'economie. On y fait reference aux tendances que l'on peut observer parallelement en Angleterre, au Canada, en Australie, au Japon, ainsi que dans les pays en developpement, quoique l'on accorde davantage d'attention aux premiers. L'objectif est de demontrer l'omnipresence de l'elargissement du contexte social et la pertinence du patrimoine culturel. L'analyse illustre le potentiel important de la culture et le fil conducteur emergent des politiques mondiales ou locales, lequel prone l'integration de la culture aux strategies de developpement.

Keywords

Tangible heritage, socio-economic perspectives, culture and development, heritage policy and practice

Introduction

Recent changes in the global environment and within human society have occurred at a speed faster than ever before. These changes prove much more difficult to control and manage, carrying the potential risk of irreversibility and endangering the integrity of the human-environment system. Along with unprecedented advances in science and technology--which bring a series of seemingly indisputable benefits--the world in the 21st century has seen massive environmental degradation, depletion of resources, widening gaps in people's quality of life, lasting regional conflicts and wars, increasing poverty, cultural homogenization and individual feelings of alienation and rootlessness.

Arising from these changes, the very idea of what development does or should mean has also rapidly evolved. Development is no longer equated solely with the endless pursuit of material and economic goals; it is increasingly perceived as a never-ending process of change towards a continuous improvement of the human condition (Rana 2000). The objective of human development has been reinterpreted to include expanding the capabilities of people to live the sorts of lives they desire (Sen 1999). It has become necessary for economic development--together with environmental, social and cultural development--to be regarded as part of a bigger whole: sustainable human development (UNDP 1994).

As an example, Throsby (2001) argues that there are clear signs of a shift underway in thinking about development. The old commodity-centered notion of economic development is giving way to a new people-centered strategy of human development, where people--as the object and means of development--do not exist in isolation. In addition, the shift is associated with a refocusing on human beings as both the object of development and as the agents by which development is brought about.

People interact with each other and with their surroundings in a variety of ways. The framework within which this interaction occurs is provided by their culture--their shared beliefs, values, languages, traditions, and so on, that constitute their daily lives. By extension, culture has appeared center-stage, as the focus of the new development concept. The intent of this paper is to illustrate and discuss the integration of culture and development--an integration that is expected to bring a variety of benefits and comparative advantages to countries and regions. For illustration, I draw on examples from around the world, focusing on built heritage. I primarily discuss examples from urban areas in developed countries; however, culture and development are also strongly integrated in rural areas and developing countries. I provide a few such examples to further illustrate the extent of this shift and the potentials that are offered by this new direction. To begin, I offer some background on this new integrated approach and the parallel changes in the conceptualization of cultural heritage.

Culture and Development

Culture has recently moved to centre stage as an important aspect of development--although it must be said that culture had already entered the stage in policy-making in the 1960-70s, the "age of decolonization." At a conference in Venice around that time, Rene Maheu, Director-General of UNESCO turned to the audience with the words:

The idea of development has, in fact, gradually become broader,

deeper, and more varied so that going beyond the purely economic

aspects of improving man's lot, it now also embraces the so-called

social aspects ... Man is the means and the end of development; he

is not the one-dimensional abstraction of homo economicus, but a

living reality, a human person, in the infinite variety of his

needs, his potentialities and his aspirations ... In the concept of

development the centre of gravity has thus shifted from the economic

to the social, and we have reached a point where this shift begins

to approach the cultural (Maheu quoted in UNESCO 1999).

The current debate about the role of culture in development has intensified on all levels. Culture has reached its peak on the agendas not only of UNESCO but of many international organizations working in the development field. Culture Counts (World Bank 1999a), The Power of Culture (UNESCO 1998), Recognizing Culture (Matarasso 2001 for UNESCO and World Bank), Culture in Sustainable Development (World Bank/UNESCO 1998), Culture and Local Development (OECD 2005) are only some of the titles in their key documents. Certainly, the emphasis on a possible symbiosis between culture and development has far-reaching implications and presents one of the greatest challenges to rethinking the development paradigm.

Development today is ever more identified as specific to culture and context. As Hettne (2002) maintains, the significance of culture and identity has to do not so much with integrating the cultural factor in the process of development as with abandoning Eurocentric development thinking. Rather than "development as catching up and imitation," there is a shift to "conceiving and conceptualizing development as an inclusive, liberating process, in which different worldviews are accommodated and constitute a dialogical process" (Hettne 2002: 7). The picture of culture and development and their multiple interactions becomes particularly difficult to grasp and deal with in the age of globalization. Globalization and culture interact in various ways, in the better case, producing multiple-choice situations. Undeniably, globalization threatens to homogenize culture, but at the same time it gives opportunities to express and emphasize cultural diversity. To illustrate, I give an example of the so-called global localization or glocalization phenomenon. An initiative of the Economic Institute of Development of the World Bank and several non-government organizations (NGOs) led to the creation of a virtual bazaar in 1997: . Although started as an experiment to demonstrate the possibilities presented by the Internet for a poor isolated village and its people, the project has turned into a permanent virtual space enabling producers from Morocco, Tunisia and Lebanon to present their countries' crafts and access international markets. Participants not only receive encouragement to further develop their traditional industries but also achieve far better economic rewards for doing so. Obviously, their success on the global market can be attributed to offering unique products typical of their specific local cultures (SDC 2003).