Forget about ‘Heritage’: Place, Ethics and the Faro Convention

Venue: Baines Wing SR 1.14

Join us for the latest in in our Centre Research Seminar Series, with speaker Dr. John Schofield, University of York

An ethical approach to heritage will be one that accords with moral principles - the principles of right and wrong. One might frame this in terms of either a utilitarian perspective, in which moral principles are guided by the edict ‘the greatest good for the greatest number’; or by a belief that individuals have ‘natural rights’ to life, liberty and property. These perspectives overlap of course.

This paper takes as its starting point the fact there are moral principles, and that a reasonable assumption is that they should be applied in a consistent manner. Using the related contexts of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights – hereafter UDHR - (1948) and the 2005 Framework Convention on the Value of Heritage for Society (Council of Europe 2008), and accepting that the UDHR is over sixty years old and arguably in need of refresh, this paper defines how the implementation of Faro can promote an ethical approach to heritage, not least in terms of widening participation across the full range of social and cultural diversity.

Following a brief general discussion of heritage ethics as they relate to participation and ownership, some brief examples will be used to illustrate how heritage practice can be more inclusive than was previously the case. It is argued that part of the problem of heritage being viewed as ‘exclusive’ (at best, divisive at worst) rests with the very word ‘heritage’. In certain contexts, an alternative (‘landscape’ or ‘place’, for example) may be a better and more effective/inclusive alternative.

John Schofield is Director of Studies, Cultural Heritage Management, in the Department of Archaeology at the University of York.

For more information, email the Centre at ccsmghinfo@leeds.ac.uk

See here for the full list of seminars in this series.

Image: Swaledale, Yorkshire (photo courtesy of the University of Leeds)