Cultural heritage as an asset for economic added value; selection processes from a coast – inland perspective – Kulturarv kyst – innland

The principal objective for the project is to investigate: When cultural heritage is activated as an asset for economic added value, what kind of selection processes are at play and what are their consequences? Through a focus on heritage sites and processes activated as an asset of economic value adding within the inland study area of Valdres and the coastal study area of Vega, the following questions are asked: – In the selected cultural heritage sites and processes, what perceptions do different local stakeholders hold of different heritage values or qualities? – Which type of cultural heritage is mobilised as an economic asset and what are the physical effects of the “selected status” on the cultural heritage and on the perceptions of this heritage? – In the areas containing the selected heritage, how do landscape features/land use changes interact or relate to the selection processes and do the landscape features/land use changes have a “feedback effect” on the perceptions of the selected heritage? – Which public and private measures are activated in relation to the selected heritage, what are their physical effects on the cultural heritage, and to what extent are the measures coordinated? – Can an improved understanding of different stakeholders/actors practices and comprehensions of selected cultural heritage and increased awareness of explicit and implicit selection mechanisms serve as an input for the future planning and management of cultural heritage? The project is a co-operation with the Norwegian Insitute for Cultural Heritage Research and the Norwegian Forest and Landscape Institute. International partners are the University of Innsbruck, Austria, and Macaulay Land Use Research Institute and UHI Millennium Institute in Scotland.