Obtaining World Heritage Status and the Impacts of Listing Aa, Bart J.M
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University of Groningen Preserving the heritage of humanity? Obtaining world heritage status and the impacts of listing Aa, Bart J.M. van der IMPORTANT NOTE: You are advised to consult the publisher's version (publisher's PDF) if you wish to cite from it. Please check the document version below. Document Version Publisher's PDF, also known as Version of record Publication date: 2005 Link to publication in University of Groningen/UMCG research database Citation for published version (APA): Aa, B. J. M. V. D. (2005). Preserving the heritage of humanity? Obtaining world heritage status and the impacts of listing. s.n. Copyright Other than for strictly personal use, it is not permitted to download or to forward/distribute the text or part of it without the consent of the author(s) and/or copyright holder(s), unless the work is under an open content license (like Creative Commons). 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Obtaining world heritage status and the impacts of listing Bart J.M. van der Aa The work in this thesis has been carried out at the faculty of spatial sciences at the University of Groningen and was supported by grant number 425-13-006 from the Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research (NWO). ISBN: 90-9018633-6 English correction Gina Rozario Photos Bart J.M. van der Aa Printing Febodruk b.v. Enschede Copyright © Bart J.M. van der Aa All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced in any form, by print or photoprint, microfilm or any other means, without written permission by the publisher. Rijksuniversiteit Groningen Preserving the heritage of humanity? Obtaining world heritage status and the impacts of listing Proefschrift ter verkrijging van het doctoraat in de Ruimtelijke Wetenschappen aan de Rijksuniversiteit Groningen op gezag van de Rector Magnificus, dr. F. Zwarts, in het openbaar te verdedigen op donderdag 26 mei 2005 om 16.15 uur door Bart Johannes Maria van der Aa geboren op 10 november 1974 te Ootmarsum Promotores: Prof. dr. P.P.P. Huigen Prof. dr. G.J. Ashworth Copromotor: dr. P.D. Groote Beoordelingscommissie: Prof. dr. P. Howard Prof. dr. H. Voogd Prof. dr. A. van der Woud Table of contents List of figures . iv List of tables . v List of boxes . vi List of photos . vii List of abbreviations . viii Preface . ix Chapter 1 Conceptualising world heritage.......................................................1 1.1 Background of the world heritage convention......................................................2 1.1.1 There is no world heritage .................................................................................2 1.1.2 World heritage exists .........................................................................................3 1.1.3 The aim of the world heritage convention .........................................................5 1.2 The selection criteria...............................................................................................5 1.2.1 Dimensions of valuating heritage.......................................................................5 1.2.2 The criterion of outstanding universal value......................................................8 1.3 World heritage listings..........................................................................................10 1.3.1 Fulfilled natural and cultural criteria................................................................10 1.3.2 Fame of listed world heritage sites...................................................................12 1.4 World heritage convention is much celebrated ..................................................13 1.4.1 Expectations about the world heritage convention ..........................................14 1.4.2 Unknown impacts of a world heritage listing ..................................................14 1.5 Research questions................................................................................................15 1.5.1 Research design ...............................................................................................18 1.5.2 Structure of the thesis.......................................................................................18 Chapter 2 Practising world heritage.................................................................19 2.1 The nomination process........................................................................................19 2.1.1 Rejections, re-nominations and their reasons...................................................20 2.2 Selection of world heritage sites largely nationally determined........................22 2.2.1 Countries must be willing to participate ..........................................................22 2.2.2 Countries must be willing to nominate sites ....................................................24 2.2.3 Countries must be able to nominate sites.........................................................25 2.2.4 High-quality sites may not be nominated.........................................................26 i 2.3 Dynamics of the world heritage list .....................................................................26 2.3.1 Kind of world heritage sites.............................................................................26 2.3.2 Spatial distribution of world heritage...............................................................30 2.4 Why has Europe so many world heritage sites?.................................................31 2.4.1 Factors influencing the number of world heritage sites ...................................32 2.4.2 Cultural productions per region .......................................................................34 2.4.3 History as indicator for cultural production .....................................................35 2.4.4 Failure of the ‘global strategy’.........................................................................37 2.5 Conducting country studies..................................................................................38 2.5.1 Scale level of case studies................................................................................38 2.5.2 Case study methodology ..................................................................................38 2.5.3 Criteria for selecting case studies.....................................................................39 2.5.4 Executing and analysing case studies ..............................................................41 Chapter 3 Nominating world heritage sites....................................................43 3.1 Different national selection approaches ..............................................................43 3.1.1 Trajectory one – Central, highlighting one historical core...............................43 3.1.2 Trajectory two – Central, highlighting various histories..................................49 3.1.3 Trajectory three – Decentralised, highlighting various histories .....................55 3.2 Patterns in world heritage nominations ..............................................................61 3.2.1 Pattern one – Different approaches over time..................................................61 3.2.2 Pattern two – Different attitudes at natural and cultural sites ..........................65 3.3 Concluding remarks..............................................................................................68 Chapter 4 Deconstructing world heritage site selection .............................69 4.1 Broad selection criteria.........................................................................................69 4.1.1 What scale level? .............................................................................................69 4.1.2 Which arguments?............................................................................................71 4.2 Factors other than the site’s quality ....................................................................74 4.2.1 Listen to the World Heritage Committee’s preferences...................................74 4.2.2 Selecting the easiest sites .................................................................................76 4.2.3 Available heritage infrastructure......................................................................79 4.2.4 Nominating sites that can be controlled ...........................................................82 4.2.5 Favourable local political circumstances .........................................................84 4.3 Concluding remarks..............................................................................................86 Chapter 5 Preserving world heritage ...............................................................87 5.1 Instruments for better preservation of world heritage sites..............................88 5.2 Does world heritage designation help to preserve sites?....................................90