Sustainable Urban Heritage Conservation in Questions

This session proposes a critical and epistemological reflection on sustainable urban heritage conservation. Recent research on the management of urban heritage following its conservation process is characterized by a growing number of studies that aim to provide an overview of how to assess the sustainability of existing practices. This dominant focus of the research has contributed to the development of indicators and approaches to sustainable development in this field. In addition, it has assisted with the implementation of policies and development strategies based on the assessment of the indicators. However, the epistemological foundations of this type of research do not achieve unanimity since its purpose is shared among various uses, both political and scientific. Increasingly numerous studies seeking to measure an aspect of sustainable urban heritage conservation—perhaps especially problems related to the quality of life in historic districts—rely on the perceptions that the various actors (including citizens) have of urban spaces and heritage policies that frame them. In doing so, researchers significantly underestimate the study of discourses, which are nevertheless constituents of patrimonialization processes and dynamics. This session will explore various aspects of the relations between heritage and sustainability. Contributors are particularly invited to highlight and address epistemological as well as ideological issues of research in the fieldwork of sustainable urban heritage conservation.