THE way we live our lives is changing. We travel further and faster than ever. We cycle and walk less. We rush to and fro, rarely pausing to encounter the things we see on the way. As a result, we view the landscape that we pass through differently. Other than on holidays, it is increasingly rare for us to stop off at historic places and monuments. Rather, we absorb information as we go, developing an understanding of our surroundings more through a kind of osmosis than by direct contact.
As our experience of landscape changes, so do our ideas about what constitutes heritage. While curators and managers once focused on the protection of specific sites and buildings, they now also seek a broader, . This shift in emphasis is partly due to our increasingly mobile society, which has created a heightened sense of 鈥渓ocalness鈥�, and a growing appreciation of personal views of what matters and why.
From the late 19th century onwards, the state has been instrumental in shaping views of our archaeological past 鈥� by identifying monuments as nationally important, for example. Yet people are now less willing to accept the authorised view, preferring to choose for themselves the types of past they believe in.
Advertisement
The evolution to personal interpretations of heritage is visible at a grassroots level: websites such as allow users to upload text, photographs and audio and video material from their cellphones about what specific places mean to them.
Researchers, too, are exploring other less tangible dimensions of heritage. For example, a project at the University of Liverpool鈥檚 is investigating connections between pop music and urban regeneration. Can we characterise urban places through the music produced there?
Lifestyle changes and new technologies have helped redefine how people relate to landscape and heritage. It is important to keep pace with these changes, for they will bring opportunities to both better understand the past and heighten its social relevance.