Heritage, urban regeneration and place-making

The focus of this special issue is upon how urban heritage is used as a mechanism to achieve urban regeneration, very broadly conceived. Because heritage can serve many purposes, it is often called upon to do so. The process of shaping heritage is undertaken consciously or unconsciously by many different agencies, including urban planners, managers and political decision makers. Heritage, as the contemporary use of imagined pasts, is thus mobilized for a wide variety of present purposes and public policy goals. One of the most frequent overt mobilizations of heritage that has developed over recent decades is its use as a catalyst in urban regeneration. The term 'regeneration' is often used as a near synonym for economic development. This is an easy trap to fall into in a world where capital accumulation overrides most processes in most places but ignores those circumstances where there are different motivations and stimulations for changing place through a process of regeneration.