Wrestling with Social Value

Value is a central concept in heritage. Despite positive shifts, current conservation practice is still dominated by Western European positivist traditions that emphasize scientific expertise. With the development of Critical Heritage Studies, new perspectives on value and processes of valuing have been proposed, raising the prospect of broader and more inclusive frameworks for heritage. This paper will consider the practical challenges of translating these new concepts, which understand value as multi-vocal and dynamic, into "real-world" conservation management, drawing on research in Scotland, which focuses on methods for assessing the "social value" of historic places. The paper will thus make a series of arguments about how different approaches and methodologies can facilitate the assessment of social values and navigation of multiple meanings associated with historic places, based on the findings from a set of comparative case studies trialing rapid, qualitative assessment methodologies at historic places in Scotland.