Contesting the expert in the Big Society : an assessment of national and local significance in relation to heritage designation in England
As many in academia now argue, heritage significance is ascribed and not intrinsic to the asset in question. For designated sites in England, the significance ascribed by experts is that of âspecial interestâ in a national context with a resultant emphasis on, in the case of buildings, the more architecturally embellished examples. However, the majority of applications for statutory heritage designation are for everyday heritage assets which have significance to the local community. When assessed under the current criteria, many of these applications are turned down because the site is not thought to have enough special interest. There are therefore significant tensions between national, expert-assessed significance and locally ascribed social significance. There has been little academic investigation of this particular area of dissonant heritage. This thesis, therefore, investigates this tension and considers opportunities to reduce it through the use of Local Heritage Lists and Big Society agenda outcomes such as neighbourhood planning. It does this through the analysis of 500 applications for statutory designation; collation and analysis of Local Heritage List data; and evaluation and analysis of data
Jackson, Stella Anne
Contesting the expert in the Big Society : an assessment of national and local significance in relation to heritage designation in England. As many in academia now argue, heritage significance is ascribed and not intrinsic to the asset in question. For designated sites in England, the significance ascribed by experts is that of âspecial interestâ in a national context with a resultant emphasis on, in the case of buildings, the more architecturally embellished examples. However, the majority of applications for statutory heritage designation are for everyday heritage assets which have significance to the local community. When assessed under the current criteria, many of these applications are turned down because the site is not thought to have enough special interest. There are therefore significant tensions between national, expert-assessed significance and locally ascribed social significance. There has been little academic investigation of this particular area of dissonant heritage. This thesis, therefore, investigates this tension and considers opportunities to reduce it through the use of Local Heritage Lists and Big Society agenda outcomes such as neighbourhood planning. It does this through the analysis of 500 applications for statutory designation; collation and analysis of Local Heritage List data; and evaluation and analysis of data
expert big society assessment national_local significance relation heritage designation england many academia argue heritage significance ascribe intrinsic asset question designate site england significance ascribe expert special_interest national_context resultant emphasis case building example however majority application statutory heritage designation everyday heritage asset significance local_community assess current criterion many application turn site think enough special_interest therefore significant tension national expert assessed significance locally ascribe social_significance little academic investigation particular area heritage therefore_investigate tension considers opportunity reduce use local heritage lists big society agenda outcomes neighbourhood planning analysis application statutory designation collation analysis local heritage list data evaluation analysis_data