Building a New Heritage [antikvár]

PREFACE The topic of European unity and identity versus individual state identities and nationalisms is crucial in the discussions, both at governmental and public levels, that have been taking place throughout the late 1980s and into the 1990s. Many of the problems seem intractable, and matters became rather worse with the entry into the picture of the former Soviet bloc countries seeking to reinforce their own statehood and identity, minimize the history and memory of Soviet/communist control, and take advantage of the perceived material benefits of West European capitaHsm. Throughout these discussions, there runs a significant thread of nationalism, state-identity and place-identity, which many have sought to invoke and strengthen by calls upon history. Is there to be a new European history for a new Europe - however wide its net is cast? Or will the fragmentary trend continue, with nationalistic interpretations of national heritages dividing the Community? The upsurge of interest in these topics, and the rapidity of change within Europe, suggested to the Urban Geography Study Group of the Institute of British Geographers (IBG) that a special session on these themes should be convened during one of the Institute's Annual Conferences, and this took place during January 1992. Even during the organization of the session, the potential shape of Europe changed dramatically as the Soviet bloc began to fragment, and the Berlin Wall was breached. The session was well attended, the diversity of scholars presenting papers and others contributing to formal and informal discussions demonstrating the popularity and topicality of these themes. The primary concern of both speakers and audience was to explore the potentially significant positive contribution that the identification and awareness of heritage, and heritage planning, could make to this newly emerging