Be Interested and Beware: Joining Economic Valuation and Heritage Conservation

Economic thinking can provide great insight into heritage conservation. The cause of integrating heritage conservation into broader social agendas could be well served by engaging with economic discourse. Written from the perspective of the conservation field, this essay draws out distinctions between economic and conservation discourses, examines why and how economic arguments are made about conservation, and advocates serious engagement of cultural economics by the heritage conservation field. Strategic and epistemological barriers to the inclusion of economic discourse in conservation are surveyed, and several arguments for including economic discourse as a more integral part of conservation practice are weighed. The essay concludes that thoughtful, critical engagement with economics discourse will lead to a dynamic new research agenda and strengthen the conservation field’s hand in policy discussions and decisions.