Cultural heritage policies a tool for development: discourse or harmony?

Abstract

In recent decades ‘the notion of “ culture” emerged as the fourth pillar of sustainable development’ (see e.g. Dallaire & Colbert 2012:7). Probably even more than other cultural expressions, cultural heritage is considered as a tool for sustainable development, certainly for the developing world. With this article we want to discuss the notion of sustainable development in the context of cultural heritage policies. Although international policies increasingly point to the value of cultural heritage for sustainable development, we would like to feed the debate on whether and to what extent these cultural heritage policies really contribute to sustainable development or whether these policies can only be classified as policy discourse.