Examining international case studies including USA, Asia, Australia and New Zealand, Laurajane Smith identifies and explores the use of heritage throughout the world.

Challenging the idea that heritage value is self-evident, and that things must be preserved because they have an inherent importance, Smith forcefully demonstrates that heritage value is not inherent in physical objects or places, but rather that these objects and places are used to give tangibility to the values that underpin different communities and to assert and affirm these values.

A practically grounded accessible examination of heritage as a cultural practice, The Uses of Heritage is global in its benefit to students and field professionals alike.

Uses of heritage

Urban tourism research: Recent progress and current paradoxes

Mostafa ADIMY Directeur de Recherches à l’INRIA Dir. de thèse Ionel S. CIUPERCA Mâıtre de Conférence à l’Université Lyon 1 Examinateur Michael C. MACKEY Directeur de Recherche à l’Université Mc GIll Dir. de thèse Sylvie MÉLÉARD Professeur à l’Ecole Polytechnique Examinatrice Sophie MERCIER Professeur à l’Université de Pau et des Pays de l’Adour Rapportrice Laurent PUJO-MENJOUET Mâıtre de Conférence à l’Université Lyon 1 Dir. de thèse Marta TYRAN-KAMIŃSKA Professeur à l’University of Silesia Examinatrice Bernard YCART Professeur à l’Université de Grenoble Rapporteur

Sous la direction de

Deaths, disasters and atrocities in touristic form are becoming an increasingly pervasive feature within the contemporary tourism landscape, and as such, are ever more providing potential spiritual journeys for the tourist who wishes to gaze upon real and recreated death. As a result, the rather emotive label of 'dark tourism' has entered academic discourse and media parlance, and consequently has generated a significant amount of research interest. However, despite this increasing attention the dark tourism literature remains both eclectic and theoretically fragile. That is, a number of fundamental issues remain, not least whether it is actually possible or justifiable to collectively categorise a diverse range of sites, attractions and exhibitions that are associated with death and the macabre as 'dark tourism', or whether identifiable degrees or 'shades' of darkness can be attributed to a particular type of dark tourism supplier. This paper argues that certain suppliers may indeed, conceptually at least, share particular product features, perceptions and characteristics, which can then be loosely translated into various 'shades of darkness'. As a result, dark tourism products may lie along a rather 'fluid and dynamic spectrum of intensity', whereby particular sites may be conceivably 'darker' than others, dependant upon various defining characteristics, perceptions and product traits. It is proposed that construction of a firm and comprehensive typological foundation will lead not only to a better understanding of dark tourism supply, but also, and perhaps more importantly, lead to a better understanding of where to locate and explore consumer demand, motivations and experiences.

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A dark tourism spectrum: Towards a typology of death and macabre related tourist sites, attractions and exhibitions

This paper discusses the relationships between heritage and the knowledge-based city. Heritage itself is conceptualised as the meanings attached in the present to the past and is regarded as a know...

Heritage as Knowledge: Capital or Culture?

From History to Heritage Dissonant Heritage Dissonance and the Uses of Heritage Dissonant Heritage and Human Diversity The Heritage of Atrocity Central Europe: Managing Heritage in the Maelstrom Canada: Management of Dissonance in a New World Southern Africa: Dissonant Heritage as the Black Man's Burden Dissonance and its Management: Conclusions and Prognosis.

Dissonant Heritage: The Management of the Past as a Resource in Conflict

The concept of heritage relates to the ways in which contemporary society uses the past as a social, political or economic resource. However, heritage is open to interpretation and its value may be perceived from differing perspectives - often reflecting divisions in society. Moreover, the schism between the cultural and economic uses of heritage also gives rise to potential conflicts of interest.
 
Examining these issues in depth, this book is the first sustained attempt to integrate the study of heritage into contemporary human geography. It is structured around three themes: the diversity of use and consumption of heritage as a multi-sold cultural and economic resource; the conflicts and tensions arising from this multiplicity of uses, producers and consumers; and the relationship between heritage and identity at a variety of scales.

A geography of heritage

It is almost 20 years since the idea of dark tourism was introduced into tourism studies, which was still predominantly viewed as a fun-based activity with a potential for a beneficent cross-cultural understanding. The suggestion that it could have dark attributes was both novel and shocking. Once introduced, the idea offered new insights into the tourist experience. It promised to open up new connections with many facets of human sensation and behaviour and also an intellectual framework to assist the management of multi-used tourism sites. This paper will examine the promise of the idea as it evolved through the work of numerous scholars who developed and refined the concept and discovered new applications for it and will explain how the focus, which initially was to identify and catalogue dark sites, has shifted towards the motivation, subsequent experience and consequent behaviour of the tourist in relation to the sites.

G.J. Ashworth

Papers

Dissonant Heritage: The Management of the Past as a Resource in Conflict

A geography of heritage

Have we illuminated the dark? Shifting perspectives on ‘dark’ tourism

Heritage, identity and Europe

Whose heritage? Global problem, European nightmare.