Towards a political economy of heritage

Although predominately a cultural phenomenon, those things we class as 'heritage' are increasingly being brought into the realm of economics. Quite apart from the tourist value of heritage, the trade in antiquities and the role of heritage in promoting development strategies, heritage objects and practice are increasingly subject to valuation in economic terms. The debate continues as to whether heritage can be treated as an economic phenomenon: whether heritage goods and assets are inevitably economic in nature because they generate wellbeing that can be measured in economic terms; whether they are non-economic entities that exist in a realm of 'culture' that can be distinguished from the economic; or whether they can be both or either depending upon the specifics of context. This paper will outline an approach to thinking about the value of heritage objects that draws upon both economics and culture. Although inspired by the belief that the heritage is fundamentally non-economic in nature, it offers an opportunity to resolve these debates in a way that benefits both our understanding of 'heritage' as a phenomenon, and that offers economists a new perspective on the valuation of 'public' goods.