This Social Value Toolkit has been developed principally to help guide heritage practitioners working within institutional contexts who need to understand the social values associated with the historic environment as part of their work.
Social value has become increasingly prominent in recent decades as a key component in understanding and managing the historic environment. The significance of historic places to contemporary communities, including people’s sense of identity, belonging, and attachment, is reflected in international conservation instruments, as well as domestic heritage frameworks in Scotland and the UK. Scotland’s Historic Environment Strategy, Our Place in Time (2014), stresses the importance of connections between people and place, and the impact this has on cultural identity and community sustainability, with the stated intention that management decisions increasingly reflect community values. In spite of this widespread recognition of the importance of community engagement, realities on the ground – of limited resources and increasing demand – have resulted in an implementation gap when it comes to incorporating social values and community knowledge into practice.
This Toolkit aims to support the assessment of social values by providing practical guidance, based on the implementation of methods in real world contexts. It is intended to be a flexible resource, that allows for bespoke responses to individual contexts. No two cases, and therefore no two assessments, will be the same. Rather than prescribing universal solutions, it will guide you to consider key questions and potential options, with examples and tips based on existing case studies.
Some of the content may be familiar to you, other aspects may be entirely new or suggest alternative perspectives. You may also want to consider how the questions raised relate to existing practices.
Whether you are new to this area of work or have some experience, we hope the guidance will prove useful in planning, applying, and reflecting on your practice.