In March 2000 at the Getty Center, the GCI Economics project gathered a small group of scholars and conservation professionals to consider methodological approaches for assessing the values of cultural heritage in the context of conservation planning. Such approaches can strengthen the conservation field's ability to deal constructively with the many, diverse, and often conflicting kinds of values ascribed to heritage—values that strongly shape conservation decision making.

The March workshop was part of the Values and Economics projects that have been under way at the GCI over the last few years. The conceptual discussions of previous phases of work were brought to bear directly on practical and strategic problems in conservation. Topics discussed included values as a central factor in the heritage-creation and conservation processes; the varied nature of heritage values; the need for a variety of assessment methods to appraise these values; the correspondence of values to particular stakeholders in the conservation process; the need to balance economic and cultural values; the need to cultivate broad participation in planning; and practical challenges to using new means of value assessment in conservation planning and management. A report on the workshop, including background papers, will soon be available on the GCI Web site.

With the results of this workshop, the Institute intends to develop a generalized framework for assessing the values of heritage as part of conservation planning, and to begin testing and applying it, with partners, in a few specific projects. This research will be joined with the GCI's ongoing work—through field projects and educational activities—on conservation planning and management.

Meeting Participants

Gustavo Araoz
Executive Director
US/ICOMOS
Washington, D.C.

Daniel Bluestone
Associate Professor of Architectural History
Director of Historic Preservation
University of Virginia
Charlottesville

Jon Calame
Special Projects Manager
World Monuments Fund
New York

Carolina Castellanos
Director of Management Plans
Instituto Nacional de Antropología e Historia
Mexico City

Richard Engelhardt
UNESCO Regional Advisor for Culture in Asia and the Pacific
Bangkok

Setha Low
Professor of Anthropology and Environmental Psychology
City University of New York
New York

Susana Mourato
Senior Research Fellow
Center for Social and Economic Research on the Global Environment
University College London
London

Eduardo Rojas
Principal Specialist
Urban Development
Inter-American Development Bank
Washington, D.C.

Teresa Satterfield
Decision Research/University of British Columbia
Vancouver

Mona Serageldin
Associate Director
Unit for Housing and Urbanization
Graduate School of Design
Harvard University
Cambridge, Massachusetts

David Throsby
Professor of Economics
Macquarie University
Sydney

GCI Participants

Erica Avrami
Project Specialist

Randall Mason
Senior Project Specialist

Jeanne Marie Teutonico
Special Advisor to the Director

Marta de la Torre
Group Director
Information & Communications