Cultural heritage, an Ill-defined concept? A call for joined-up policy

Cultural heritage is of immense importance in the construction of identities and, therefore, the behaviour of society. It is argued here that traditional approaches, reflected in British government legislation and policy, ignore elements integral to community perceptions of cultural heritage. The current framework of heritage management also hinders practitioners from exploring, conserving, presenting and challenging these constructs This paper calls for the development of integrated and inclusive heritage-management practice and a recognition of the contribution of recent research into constructs of cultural heritage It is argued that there is a need to investigate the opportunities for, and feasibility of, developing more integrated approaches that reflect the diverse and joined-up nature of cultural heritage.