In addition to its comparative perspective and its focus on theabundanceof heritage
and various changes that have occurred as a result of the globalisation of heritage over
the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries, where this book differs markedly
from other current interdisciplinary critical studies of heritage is in its focus on three
linked themes ofmateriality,connectivityanddialogue. These themes, discussed in more
detail within the book, developed out of my particular experiences working with
Indigenous Australians who have consistently challenged the modern Cartesian dual-
isms of nature/culture and matter/mind, and the ways in which they inform various
global, national, regional and local processes of cultural heritage management. I suggest
that notions of connectivity, and a model that sees heritage as a product of the dia-
logue between people and things, have the potential to address the contemporary
crisisof the abundance of heritage, which I argue arises from a late-modern sense of
uncertaintyand redundancy (itself in many ways related to the current globalfinancial
crisis and other by-products of late capitalism). These new themes and definitions of
heritage also have much to contribute to opening up new avenues of research for
critical interdisciplinary heritage studies, which I argue (in general terms) has tended
to under-theorise the affective qualities of heritage, and to focus instead on issues
arising from the politics of representation. My aim in this book is to link these two
ways of approaching heritage to develop a critical material semiotic approach to
heritage and its role in contemporary global societies.
In the book I have tried to address heritage in an explicitly interdisciplinary fashion,
treating it as a broad social (and simultaneouslymaterial) phenomenon, rather than
restricting my analysis to one particular‘type’of heritage. Such interdisciplinarity
poses a serious challenge of bridging multiple literatures and critical traditions appro-
priately, and some readers mayfind that I have emphasised particular kinds of heritage
and particular aspects of the heritage literature with which I am more familiar, to the
detriment of others. Similarly, I have tried to draw on international examples wher-
ever possible, although of course I have tended to explore the regions with which I
am familiar in most detail, in particular, the UK, North America and Australia. It is
also important to note here that my discussion limits itself specifically to anglophone
literatures, and hence largely Western examples. Having said this, I argue for the need to
look at heritage as an issue of broad social, economic, political and environmental con-
cern in contemporary global societies, and I hope those who do not see their own
field or region emphasised strongly in the book will nonetheless read on and recognise
the broad themes and their application to their own particular areas of interest. In the
spirit of greater cross-disciplinary engagement, there is also a pressing need to pay
more attention to non-anglophone (and, indeed, non-Western) heritage literatures,
histories and traditions, and I hope those who read this book who are able to
comment on those alternative traditions might be challenged to do this.
When I came to write the book, I drew selectively on the work I had done for the
Open University moduleUnderstanding Global Heritage, in almost all cases significantly
reworking and redrafting the original material. While very little of what has made it
into this book bears direct resemblance to the original sections of the chapters on
which I drew, having been completely reworked and reorganised, it is important to
Preface and acknowledgementsxiii