This volume brings together an interdisciplinary team of leading scholars to discuss frameworks of value in relation to the preservation of historic environments. Starting from the premise that heritage values are culturally and historically constructed, the book examines the effects of pluralist frameworks of value on how preservation is conceived. It questions the social and economic consequences of constructions of value and how to balance a responsive, democratic conception of heritage with the pressure to deliver on social and economic objectives. It also describes the practicalities of managing the uncertainty and fluidity of the widely varying conceptions of heritage.

Contents: Introduction: valuing historic environments, Lisanne Gibson and John Pendlebury; Part I Values and Heritage Stewardship: Patrons, populists, apologists: crises in museum stewardship, David Lowenthal; Deference and humility: the social values of the country house, Laurajane Smith; Historic landscapes and the recent past: whose history?, Peter Howard. Part II Cultural Landscapes: Cultural landscapes and identity, Lisanne Gibson; Being autocentric: towards symmetry in heritage management practices, John Schofield; Reputation and regeneration: history and the heritage of the recent past in the re-making of Blackpool, John K. Walton and Jason Wood; Values not shared: the street art of Melbourne's city laneways, Tracey Avery. Part III The Heritage of Housing: The Georgian house: the making of a heritage icon, Peter Borsay; Social housing as heritage: the case of Byker, Newcastle upon Tyne, John Pendlebury, Tim Townshend and Rose Gilroy; Whose housing heritage?, Peter Malpass; Index.