Chapter 1 - Spatial heritage and culture of the territory

Abstract

One of the most significant spatial and cultural phenomena of our time is the importance we give to the concept of territorial heritage. This can be justified as the reaction to the culturally simplifying impact of globalisation. It can also be considered coherent with the discovery of its possibilities as an identifying factor, a potential development activity, an image accreditation element or an entrepreneurial line of business. It is a crucial tendency deriving from: the attention given to the various components of which it consists; its intrinsic wealth; the importance of the methodological innovations applied to its study and interpretation; and the resonance of the debates, interests, contradictions and conflicts that surround it. It is a polysemic concept, open to new and changing classifications, geographically widespread and in a continuous process of changing values. Its consideration as a central theme in the analysis of the factors that transform space provides researchers in this topic with an attractive but complex question due to the theoretical and empirical interest that characterises it. This is why, when attempting to analyse its impact on contemporary territorial dynamics, the interpretations that abound are both numerous and balanced. Such interpretations abound through the observation of its materialisation within a panorama in which there is a mix of the possibilities associated with its wide perspectives and the balance (at the same time ambivalent, polemic and antagonistic) obtained through its use.