The Oxford Handbook of Public Heritage Theory and Practice makes a compelling case for the value of social scientific approaches to heritage as we face the defining challenges of the Anthropocene: economic and social inequality, racism, geopolitical instability, and rapid social and environmental change. It is a reminder that archaeologists are among a cadre of social scientists and heritage practitioners contributing to the collective endeavor of heritage and that there is much to gain from multi- and transdisciplinary engagements.
Co-editors Angela M. Labrador and Neil Asher Silberman bring together authors from diverse settings (e.g., academic, private, public, NGO) who draw from and across disciplines including anthropology, history, psychology, urban planning, management, accounting, resource conservation, and economics. Readers, especially those training or trained in anthropological and archaeological frameworks, will benefit from the broad scope. The avenues away from disciplinary silos are inviting.
The handbook is organized into five thematic parts, each with five or six concise chapters. Labrador and Silberman present a lucid framing essay that maps the vast terrain under consideration, turning on the core idea that heritage—the decision to preserve and pass on—is at essence an ethical decision informed by values ascribed by people with different positionalities (p. 2). The essay positions the chapters that follow as emergent from two pivotal shifts in the heritage field: the turn toward community participation and a return to material matters via the ontological turn (p. 4).
Labrador and Silberman's central conceit is realized in the chapters that follow. Authors examine the intersections of heritage with global development, markets and management, power, change, and memory and well-being. While covering varied theoretical, methodological, disciplinary, and geographical ground, chapters take on notions of community, value, power, and place. Though there is some building of ideas in the sequence of sections and chapters, there are disappointingly few instances of cross-referencing within chapters despite productive overlap.
The most challenging and exciting chapters advance novel ideas and concepts. For instance, Rojas deploys theories of urban governance to examine urban heritage sustainability in Latin America, while Winter frames transboundary heritage in Asia as a form of geopolitical diplomacy there. Niles argues, convincingly, that agricultural heritage is an enduring form of knowledge transmission rather than a quaint relic of past modes of production. In a provocative, bleak, and predicting piece, Albrecht weaves together his notion of solastalgia (the lived experience of negative environmental change) and foretells a period following the Anthropocene, the Symbiocene, in which “heritage will tell us a story about where we have come from, where we went wrong, and how we got back on track again” (p. 364).
Other authors avoid prediction and instead ask provocative, practical questions. Barrère asks whether heritage is cultural capital or cultural commons, while Ellwood considers whether heritage should be included on balance sheets as financial assets. Kaufman takes us well beyond the traditional heritage fields to engage understandings of place attachments from environmental psychology and behavioral economics. The literature these authors bring to bear is likely unfamiliar to many archaeologists; therefore, the reference lists are vital resources for readers.
Most chapters provide a blend of theoretical and empirical considerations, though depth and emphasis vary. Offered are familiar methods such as archival and spatial analyses, ethnography, and other qualitative approaches, as well as less familiar quantitative instruments drawn from public health, management, planning, and psychology. Most of the case studies provide empirical evidence that supports or challenges widely held assumptions. Rojas finds a positive relationship between a diversified base of committed rights and interest holders and the sustainability of urban heritage projects. Sayer's mixed-methods study shows that hands-on and participatory heritage positively impacted children's well-being, while Kidd shows that digital heritage is not the great democratizer some hoped it would be. These studies show how the impact of heritage projects can be measured, assessed, and evaluated.
The most provocative piece from an archaeological standpoint is LaSalle and Hutchings’ incisive critique of what they see as the conflation of Indigenous and collaborative archaeologies. Their conclusion that decolonization should mean the end of archaeology (p. 233) is likely to cause some archaeologists to bristle, but their position demands consideration and response.
Overall, this handbook delivers on its promise to convince readers that social science research and analytical approaches are vital to heritage policy and practice and offer the potential for transforming practitioners and partnering communities.
