This is not a Monument: Rhetorical Destruction and the Social Context of Cultural Resource Management

Author: Cooper, Malcolm A

Source: Public Archaeology, Volume 7, Number 1, Spring 2008 , pp. 17-30(14)

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Abstract:

Cultural resource management is often seen as a matter of identifying and valuing historic buildings, monuments and landscapes, and protecting their special interest through a suite of suitable heritage legislation and policy. However, unexpected damage and loss of heritage assets occur with regularity despite clear identification of their importance and the existence of suitable heritage legislation. While this problem is frequently seen as exceptional, this paper argues that it is not helpful to see these cases as such. Instead, it is argued that such cases highlight the social context within which cultural resource management takes places and, in particular, the rhetoric that is employed within the context of competing discourses.

Document Type: Research Article

DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1179/175355308X305997

Publication date: 2008-03-01

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