To Value vs to Valorize: two perspectives for cultural heritage management (excerpt)

human groups

CHRONOTOPE

1

sets the criteria to manage differences

produce and reproduce

policy-making 3

2

CULTURAL HERITAGE

CULTURE TO VALUE

4

Dar valor

8

5

TO VALORIZE Poner en valor

6

MEMORY

1. cohesion society field of study 2. cultural identity 3. recover authorship

7

RESOURCE 1. national identity 2. tourism attractive

Nogués-Pedregal, AM: "Conclusion: Sociocultural Nature and Context of Tourism" In AM Nogués-Pedregal (ed.) Culture and society in tourism contexts. Pages 181-208. (Tourism Social Science Series, v. 17) Emerald Books, 2012. doi:10.1108/S1571-5043(2012)0000017011

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For instance, it has been shown that during the last decades of the 20th century, ‘‘culture’’ was discovered as ‘‘an economic asset for investors seeking an outlet for global capital flows’’ (Scott p. 1; Bianchi, 2005; Nogue´s-Pedregal, 2002). At least at EU official levels, ‘‘culture’’ as a development resource for the regions is understood in its broadest sense (Comunidades Europeas, 1998). However, in those territories where tourists have long been present and tourism is founded in reality, the notion of ‘‘culture’’ has been totally reduced to that of ‘‘commodity.’’ Despite certain epistemological obstinacy in the use of concepts, such as authenticity or commoditization in tourism studies, contributors have shown that in tourism contexts there is a novelty worth analyzing: a characteristic feedback of information. In the specific chronotope generated by tourism narratives, the historical density that nurtures the collective memory, which, in turn, upholds cultural identity, is not just sold by the pound. Much on the contrary, it is continuously reenacted and revisited in terms of stretching the past into the present (as a resource) in order to be projected onto the future (as development through tourism). Fig. 2 summarizes the marketing of the intangible and the mediation of tourism space. This graph is a specific application of the general model outlined in the Introduction to this volume (p. xxi). During their daily social

Fig. 2 Marketing the Intangible and the Mediation of Tourism Space.

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interactions, (1) people make sense of their lives and (re)produce what is called ‘‘culture.’’ Some elements (tangible and/or intangible) of this mode of understanding life are selected (2) by the hegemonized ruling groups to mark out distinctions in society and to sort them out (Bourdieu, 1979). Culture, would be thus used as a way to refer to differences and to make sense of the world. The closest relatives of these ruling groups, who are policymakers and top-level technicians (3) manage these selected elements and categorize them as ‘‘cultural heritage’’ according to hegemonized ideological principles. This is, according to the set of ideas about the nature of the social world , how it works and how it should be. In state societies, the management of this ‘‘cultural heritage’’ is the monopoly of institutionalized agents called ‘‘experts.’’ This expertness is the only instance capable of using the label ‘‘heritage’’ by means of technical reports and studies. At this stage, Nogue´s-Pedregal (2008b) observes two possible strategies (4 and 5) of managing ‘‘cultural heritage.’’ On the one hand, dar valor (to value) implies to work for the continuance in the production of sense, for the historical density of societies, for their memory: ‘‘toward the inside.’’ This consideration of memory (6) offers cohesion to society, and/or creates cultural identity, and/or recovers the value of authorship and their public recognition, especially in those societies where important social groups (normally indigenous population) are marginalized from the official history. To accomplish this aim, projects should pay attention to the sense that those elements labeled as cultural heritage have for their authors. Attention and long-time fieldwork seems to be the only method to handle this brittle item with the necessary care. Alas, the scholar’s use of memory as a field of research and the ensuing publications paradoxically links with the other strategy. The strategy of poner en valor (to valorize) is intended primarily ‘‘toward de outside,’’ that is, with the aim of attracting tourist and meeting their motivations for traveling. This usage (7) transforms ‘‘cultural heritage’’ into a ‘‘resource.’’ Still, in this volume, many examples have shown that in those contexts where the economic potentialities of tourism are presented as the main vehicle for development, there is a characteristic feedback of information back to the origin (8). This communication is particular because the contents and senses imposed on daily sociocultural interactions by that aggregate of sociotechnical practices and devices called ‘‘tourism’’ permeates it. The feedback renew the ideological criteria that manages differences and that authorize which elements are to be categorized as ‘‘cultural heritage,’’ as well as the way in which local populations see, perceive, and use the places they inhabit, and update their own collective memory.