Building heritage: cultures and sites of architectural conservation

Please distribute to anyone you know who might be interested - postgrad
contributions welcome.
Bronwen


Royal Geographical Society (with IBG) Annual Conference, 27-29 August
2008, London


Call for papers


Building heritage: cultures and sites of architectural conservation

In the last decade we have talked a lot about heritage. Geographers have
contributed important knowledge about the complexities of searching for
and producing the partial and plural past in contemporary society. This
session is concerned with broadening our understanding of the
specifically architectural aspects of our 'cult' of heritage (Lowental
1998). It will explore the kinds of heritage produced in urban and rural
built landscapes, and in buildings ranging from the domestic and social,
to the commercial, industrial and military, buildings that are protected
and those that are neglected. We are particularly concerned with
identifying the contributions geographers can make to the current debate
about building conservation policy and practice. (Heritage Protection
for the 21st Century - White Paper 2007) The session is also motivated
by a desire for geography to engage more confidently with the aesthetics
and materiality of design, with surface and fabric as well as space.
This involves addressing the problematic, often hidden, role of 'taste'
and changing historical sensibilities within conservation processes and
cultures, and the ways in which theses are narrated and legitimised.

We invite new and established researchers working on all aspects
architectural heritage and the built landscape, in the UK and elsewhere,
to contribute to this session, especially those addressing the following
broad themes:

* geographies of architecture and conservation

* heritage activism: individual campaigning and preservation
societies

* custodians of built heritage, including government policy and
process

* built heritage and urban renewal: securing the future of cities

* tourism, leisure and historic architecture

* architectural heritage and sustainability

Session organisers: Bronwen Edwards and Ian Strange, Leeds Metropolitan
University.

Please send expressions of interest to: b.edwards@leedsmet.ac.uk

Titles and abstracts (200 words) to b.edwards@leedsmet.ac.uk by Friday
8th Feb


Dr Bronwen Edwards

Senior Lecturer in Human Geography
Leeds Metropolitan University
School of the Built Environment
Northern Terrace
Queen Square Court
Civic Quarter
Leeds
LS2 8AJ

tel: 0113 8129157

fax: 0113 8121958

email: b.edwards@leedsmet.ac.uk