While built heritage is in an important sense 'priceless', economic arguments about conservation are of growing interest. The call for transparent decision-making and the fact that conservation increasingly needs to compete for both public and private funds have led to a widening research activity on heritage economics. Several rigorous valuation methods are available, but there remains a theoretically inspiring, unexplored terrain to be studied.
In this international context, the Economics and Built Heritage project aims to
- raise public awareness about the value adding potential of heritage,
- prepare a Scandinavian and Baltic research agenda
- and network researchers across national borders.
The next step, forming the second phase of the project, will be to prepare and set in motion a comparative research programme on the issue. Currently, the organising institutions are preparing a research and dissemination strategy. This website is the 'base camp' of the programme, providing information for researchers and other interested actors, an access to relevant contact and funding information and, in the future, a publication channel for working papers and articles.
We welcome any ideas, suggestions, comments or material for the website. Please do not hesitate to contact the coordinator.
The Economics and Built Heritage project is organised by the National Board of Antiquities (Finland), The National Heritage Board (Sweden) and the Directorate for Cultural Heritage (Norway). The project is coordinated by the Centre for Urban and Regional Studies, an independent research unit at the Helsinki University of Technology. The first phase, autumn 2005 - spring 2006, was funded by the Nordic Council of Ministers.
