Politics, Policy and the Discourses of Heritage in Britain [Hardcover]

This book offers a critique of the dominant conceptualization of heritage found in policy, which tends to privilege the white, middle and upper classes. Using Britain as an illustration,?Waterton explores how and why recent policies continue to lean towards the predictable melding of cultural diversity with tendencies of assimilation.List of Figures List of Abbreviations Acknowledgements Introduction Critical Discourse Analysis and Cultural Policy Heritage in the Wider World The Discursive Blueprint: A History of Heritage Policy New Labour, New Heritage? On Being Radical: The Heritage Protection Reform Turning the Trick by Itself: The Historic Environment and 'Community Cohesion' Conclusion Appendices Notes References Index

'The diversity of contemporary societies, Britain among them, raises pressing and profound questions concerning social inclusion and exclusion and the dangers of equating multiculturalism and plurality with assimilation. Politics, Policy and the Discourses of Heritage in Britain, with its timely and carefully nuanced call for more complex narratives and representations of heritage as a medium of cultural policy, is essential reading for academics and policy-makers concerned with the ways in which heritage can both impede but also articulate the realisation of diverse and plural societies.'

- Brian Graham, Emeritus Professor of Human Geography, University of Ulster, Northern Ireland

'This timely volume is a significant theoretical contribution to contemporary heritage studies, and the critique of the Authorised Heritage Discourse. It is based on extensive empirical research, informed by wide reading in the social sciences, methodologically innovative and relentlessly and intelligently critical of modern heritage policy. Its focus on heritage policy and social inclusion in Britain will set the agenda on studying heritage policy not only in Britain but internationally. Politics, Policy and the Discourses ols¸