View article

In this chapter, we critically explore the evolution of urban conservation as a component of urban planning and governance. While built heritage governance has traditionally been dominated by a positivist epistemological perspective emphasising professional knowledge and intrinsic properties, conservation as an element within urban planning also intersects with wider societal values. These tend to be rooted in non-expert experiential knowledge, associative attributes such as symbolism, collective memories, place-attachment and place-identity, or manifest as nostalgia, and interconnected with intangible heritage. In this context, urban planning provides a key arena for regulating and mediating diverse heritage values. This chapter therefore explores the relationship between urban planning and conservation, charting key policy shifts, for example: from a focus on individual buildings towards the historic urban …