There are a few places that we suggest you may wish to start, depending on your interests and needs:
If you want to know what a social values assessment might involve
Start by having a look at one or more of the Case Studies. These are examples of real world assessments, describing the process and the understandings achieved.
If you are planning to conduct, support, or review an assessment
We recommend following one of the three process pathways (see buttons on the Home page), to help guide you through the content. At some stage you are likely to be referred to each of the main sections, but it may be most helpful to consider the questions raised in a particular order depending on process.
If you are looking for guidance on a specific issue
You can jump straight to any content via the Menu or use the search function to locate your topic of interest. The main sections within this Toolkit are:
- Approaches – the degree of participation/collaboration and the rapidity of an assessment.
- Methods – the selection and combination of methods of assessment.
- Context – social research factors, including relationships and ethics.
- Heritage Practice – some of the opportunities and questions raised when incorporating social values into different heritage management and conservation processes.
- Case Studies – examples of assessments in real world contexts.
There is also a section with Resources for those who would like additional or more detailed information. From there you can also download sample documents, templates and other content.
Keep a note…
This guidance is envisaged as a base that you can adapt, build on from, add too, personalise, and use as part of peer-to-peer sharing. Please take it in this spirit and apply it in the manner most useful to you.
Keep a note as you do so. Your experiences will be invaluable in further developing practice in this area and you are encouraged to document and share these.