Conservation theory and practice: Materials, values, and people in heritage conservation

Conservation, as an emerging discipline, is mutually constituted with the heritage institutions in which it is practiced. Professional conservators have been amending the focus of their work, from attending to the material preservation of heritage spaces, places, and objects, toward the values that people have for their cultural heritage. This chapter describes an alternative conservation product, which is entangled within the multiple interactions between objects and people developed during the conservation event. This reflects a shift in focus from the materials from which conservation objects are composed, to the aspirations of the people who are affected by the conservation of their heritage. This challenges conventional heritage conservation practice, by privileging a community's cultural systems over universalized concepts of heritage. As a result, conservation practice requires principles, policies, and guidelines that help conservators to engage people in decision‐making about their heritage. New frameworks for understanding conservation practice enable creative and diverse solutions within heritage conservation. This is described in this chapter in terms of materials‐, values‐, and peoples‐based approach to conservation. This allows heritage conservation to address the social issues of the present and engage the future, rather than merely seeking to fix the past. In so doing, it validates conservation responses that seek to incorporate the multiple ways that people care for and use their own cultural heritage