Politics, Policy and the Discourses of Heritage in Britain - by E Waterton (Hardcover)

Book Synopsis

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.

Review Quotes

'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 of Heritage in Britain must be on the bookshelf of anyone with an interest in heritage, cultural policy and social inclusion.'

- Laurajane Smith, editor, International Journal of Heritage Studies, School of Archaeology and Anthropology, Heritage andMuseum Studies, Australian National University

About the Author

EMMA WATERTON is a Lecturer in Social Science at the University of Western Sydney, Australia. Her research is largely prompted by an interest in the tensions that exist between elite discourses and alternative constructions of heritage, memory and identity. Publications include the co-authored volume (with Laurajane Smith) Heritage, Communities and Archaeology (2009) and the co-edited volume (with Steve Watson) Culture, Heritage and Representations (2010). She is currently Assistant Editor of the International Journal of Heritage Studies.