Heritage and Social Change: Anticipating Future Trends
While its intellectual roots go back for centuries, heritage conservation came of age as an organizational field in the second half of the twentieth century. As the typical conservationist went from being an amateur interested in art, architecture, or archaeology, to a professional with a scientific, rational bent, the field became more bureaucratized and specialized (Lee 2002; Koshar 2004) The field also gained strength from UNESCO's definition of cultural heritage as a human right and the passage of a series of path breaking conventions. With the world economy undergoing dramatic expansion for much of the period, heritage conservation appeared a growth industry, aided by the changing definition of heritage. From being focused on isolated monuments, the definition expanded to include whole landscapes, and also intangible cultural patterns and practices.