| Summary: | This research investigates the inclusion of young people in current heritage conservation policy. The investigation is founded on the premise that, despite internationally agreed conservation principles recommending more inclusive policies and a body of literature highlighting the importance of cultural and social diversity for sustainable development, most heritage conservation policy and practice at the local level is still elitist and informed by the values of only a few groups in society. Many groups therefore, including young people, do not recognise the official (or listed) heritage as theirs and feel they have nothing to contribute to the process of heritage protection. The situation of young people is aggravated by the fact that the group is usually regarded as the future generation, a state that undermines their visibility as social actors of today with the same rights as adults to participate in policy making processes. The initial stage of the research involved the identification of the contextual framework based on the analysis of international policy and Brazilian legal and administrative structures influencing local heritage conservation and the theoretical underpinnings for the investigation developed from a review of the literature on the themes of heritage conservation, heritage value, young people and participation. The initial stage informed the design of an analytical framework, which is sensitive to cultural and social contexts, for the investigation of inclusiveness in heritage conservation. A qualitative approach through a multi-method strategy was adopted to provide an in-depth examination of the research problem in the city of Pelotas, Brazil. The applied research involved three methodological stages: I) the identification of what young people value as heritage and how they value it; 2) the investigation of to what extent local policy respond to the values of young people by directly including them into policy (assigned value), by generating practical benefits for the group (instrumental value), and by providing avenues for the group's participation (institutional value); and 3) the consideration of a creative and dialogical participatory approach, involving adults and young people, as a tool for increasing institutional value. Together, the contextual and theoretical frameworks and the results from the in depth study in Pelotas are used to propose theoretical and practical recommendations and strategies for the development of more inclusive heritage conservation policies. These are seen as starting points for bridging the gap between the exclusive character of heritage conservation and the current requirements for social and cultural inclusion.
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