Discussion and conclusions

Abstract

Global heritage discourses indicate a growing recognition of heritage outside the Euro-American region over the past decades, emphasizing the importance of intangible heritage and its interlinkage with tangible assets. However, urban realities in the Global South are still somewhat different. Here often the understanding of heritage is still determined by a legislation rooted in outdated understandings, moreover not matching traditional and community-based belief systems which themselves have rather shaped today’s heritage discourses. Manifold processes relate to urban heritage and the urban centre, making it a very difficult arena with different actors and particular interests, often dominated by economic interests while sacrificing those of marginalized or less powerful groups. Paradoxically it is exactly those groups that have contributed to constructing the urban tangible and intangible heritage. Attachment to the historic centre, its places, sites, uses and traditions itself as well as to urban intangible values nevertheless is still high among the urban population. To maintain historic urban cores is recommendable to see the built fabric, open spaces, underlying planning and meaning, as well as uses, functions and values associated to distinct sites as parts of a whole.