A four-volume collection that brings together the Anglophone literature of heritage studies. This collection is interdisciplinary, with research drawn from the three disciplines of archaeology, architecture and history traditionally associated with material heritage, and also from subjects such as geography, anthropology, museology, and others.

Cultural Heritage is a new title in the Routledge Major Works series, Critical Concepts in Media and Cultural Studies. Edited by Laurajane Smith of the University of York, UK, this four-volume collection brings together the essential Anglophone literature of heritage studies. Encompassing both contemporary material and material of historical significance from the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, the collection is explicitly interdisciplinary, with research drawn not only from the three disciplines of archaeology, architecture and history traditionally associated with material heritage, but also from subjects such as geography, anthropology, museology, sociology, cultural studies, performance studies and tourism studies. As an emerging field of academic enquiry, the sheer scale of the growth in research output in heritage studies makes this collection especially timely, and meets the demand for a comprehensive reference work to give greater clarity and focus to this fast-developing area. Its value also lies in its bringing together the best scholarship from the various disciplines that are newly turning their attention to issues relating to 'heritage', as well as in identifying cultural heritage's key themes and debates. The first volume ('History and Concepts') in the collection describes the development of the modern concern with conserving and preserving material from the past--often conceptualized as 'heritage'. It also gathers the best research about the key concepts and principles underlying heritage management and conservation practices. Volume 2 ('Critical Concepts in Heritage') traces the dissonant and contested nature of heritage practices and the various attempts that have been made to theorize heritage conservation, curation and preservation practices. The volume contains work on the debates over indigenous heritage, national identity, and memory and heritage, together with papers that attempt to explain and contextualize these debates. Volume 3 ('Heritage as an Industry') collects the most significant scholarship on issues about the so-called 'commodification' of the past and the creation of 'consensual histories', while Volume 4 ('Interpretation and Community') contains the key material on the practice of heritage interpretation and community heritage projects, as well as work on the developing debates about the nature of intangible heritage. The collected materials are supplemented by an introduction to each volume, newly written by the editor, together with a full index. It is destined to be welcomed by scholars and teachers of cultural heritage--and those working in allied disciplines--as an invaluable reference resource.

Historic sites, memorials, national parks, museumsewe live in an age in which heritage is ever-present. But what does it mean to live amongst the spectral traces of the past, the heterogeneous piling up of historic materials in the present? How did heritage grow from the concern of a handful of enthusiasts and specialists in one part of the world to something which is considered to be universally cherished? And what concepts and approaches are necessary to understanding this global obsession? Over the decades, since the adoption of the World Heritage Convention, various e~crisese(tm) of definition have significantly influenced the ways in which heritage is classified, perceived and managed in contemporary global societies. Taking an interdisciplinary approach to the many tangible and intangible e~thingse(tm) now defined as heritage, this book attempts simultaneously to account for this global phenomenon and the industry which has grown up around it, as well as to develop a e~toolkit of conceptse(tm) with which it might be studied. In doing so, it provides a critical account of the emergence of heritage studies as an interdisciplinary field of academic study. This is presented as part of a broader examination of the function of heritage in late modern societies, with a particular focus on the changes which have resulted from the globalisation of heritage during the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries. Developing new theoretical approaches and innovative models for more dialogically democratic heritage decision making processes, Heritage: Critical Approaches unravels the relationship between heritage and the experience of late modernity, whilst reorienting heritage so that it might be more productively connected with other pressing social, economic, political and environmental issues of our time.

Critical Heritage Studies is a new and fast-growing interdisciplinary field of study seeking to explore power relations involved in the production and meaning-making of cultural heritage. Politics of Scale offers a global, multi- and interdisciplinary point of view to the scaled nature of heritage, and provides a theoretical discussion on scale as a social construct and a method in Critical Heritage Studies. The international contributors provide examples and debates from a range of diverse countries, discuss how heritage and scale interact in current processes of heritage meaning-making, and explore heritage-scale relationship as a domain of politics.