CONTEXT 184 : JUNE 2025 5 Periodically Historic Environment The leading item among the eight areas of competence for IHBC members is philosophy: knowledge and understanding of conservation theory and the social, cultural, political, aesthetic, economic and environmental values that underpin current conservation policy and practice. Readers should therefore find the latest bumper issue (running to 223 pages) of Historic Environment: policy and practice (Vol 15, No 4, 2024) to be particularly informative. Perhaps the most interesting and insightful paper is by independent scholar and IHBC associate Alfie Robinson on the importance of the listed building survey in England 1982–1989. This forms a thought-provoking counterpoint to the major evaluation of listing from a national amenity society perspective by Matthew Saunders, published as a Historic England Research Report (No 27, 2021); and a particularly useful update on the substantial 42-page paper on the National Resurvey published by no fewer than seven collaborative authors, led by Martin Robertson and published in the Transactions of the Ancient Monuments Society in 1993. Both of the latter studies are easily and fully accessible online. Alfie Robinson asserts that the list inherited today, in numbers, distribution and quality, owes as much to the efforts of the seven years between 1982 and 1989 as it did to the other seven decades of listing combined. What is particularly helpful about Robinson’s paper is the context it provides regarding the evolving nature of the listing surveys in the 1980s, as reflected in the interpretations that day-to-day heritage management has to place on listings in the 21st century. It notes, for example, concerns about the time and resource pressures, particularly when dealing with rural areas, as reflected in building descriptions. The paper is a useful reminder that it is only the address that is statutory, and that the descriptions were invariably required to be brief. For today’s practitioners, concerned that buildings in their area might have been missed, there is also a reminder that the gridded OS survey maps required that every building on each portion of that map had to be inspected, including isolated cottages and farm buildings, and that inspectors needed to be prepared to walk behind street frontages and around farmyards to assess every building. Descriptions of listed buildings changed noticeably after 1982. Before then, they did not usually need to explain why the buildings were important or say if they were valuable. Listing fieldworkers were writing for an expert audience, with listing descriptions never intended to be made easily digestible to the general reader. Instead, descriptions were to be exact, using set formula and required readers to make the correct inferences from what was written and, indeed, what was not written. Practitioners who today struggle to interpret ‘legacy’ descriptions from those produced currently should bear in mind that the criteria for listing could only provide a framework within which knowledge and discernment had to be employed. When faced with legacy descriptions, it is worth returning to past listing guidance notes (first issued in 1979 and for the second phase of survey in 1984) to have some sense of what value or otherwise could be ascribed to the less fulsome entries of that era. Robinson has some insightful observations to make about the concept of group value, introduced in 1970 but applied at some scale for the first time in the 1980s survey. Group value is of interest in inviting reflections on the policy aims of the overall project. How many would make up a group and on what basis? On the one hand, group value risked being the most inclusive of the survey criteria, potentially elevating ‘marginal’ buildings into listed status. On the other, the guidance was explicit about the risks of over-listing, aware of the already substantial planning controls of that era to shape development. 11 mm Volume 15 Number 4 2024 The Historic Environment POLICY & PRACTICE POLICY & PRACTICE The Historic Environment ISSN 1756-7505 Volume 15 Number 4 2024 ISSN 1756-7505 www.tandfonline.com/yhen The Historic Environment POLICY & PRACTICE Volume 15 Number 4 2024 CONTENTS Editorial Editorial 15.4 Politics, Philosophy and Economics Michael Dawson 443 Research Articles Intangible Cultural Heritage and UK Built Heritage Practice: Opportunities and Future Directions Johnathan Djabarouti 450 Towards Enhanced Built Cultural Heritage Conservation Practices: Perceptions on Industry 5.0 Principles and Enabling Technologies Alejandro Jiménez Rios, Maria Nogal, Vagelis Plevris, Rafael Ramirez and Margarita L. Petrou 466 Reconstruction as a Tool for ‘Ideological Preservation’ in the Three Former Ottoman Capitals of Turkey Pnar Aykaç 493 The Dilemma of Urban Heritage Conservation in Post-Con ict Bamiyan: A Critical Analysis of Causes, Failures, Consequences and Prospects Reza Abouei and Mahdi Tavasoli 517 Energy Ef ciency and Socio-Cultural Values in Public Policy in the City of Stockholm Stina Hagelqvist, Mattias Legnér and Paula Femenías 540 Unmasking Dominant Features in a Transformed Cultural Landscape Marta Rusnak, Andrew Tadeusz Duchowski, Agnieszka Tomaszewicz, Izabela Garaszczuk, Anna Brdulak, Małgorzata Biegańska, Zo a Koszewicz and Daria Dobrasiak 564 Determination of Shoreline Variability for Adaptation of Maritime Built Heritage to Climate Change: A Case of Southern Kenya Coast Wallace Njiiri, Mugwima Njuguna and Ephraim Wahome 594 Underwater Cultural Heritage in World Heritage Sites: Figures and Insights into Possibilities and Realities Elena Perez-Alvaro, Martijn Manders and Chris Underwood 611 The Importance of the Listed Buildings Resurvey in England (1982–1989) Al e Robinson 644 Taylor & Francis takes seriously its commitment to sustainability. In addition to all paper used in our journals being from certi ed responsible sources, this journal is plastic-free and no longer uses plastic cover lamination or polywrap for mailing. Our print publications are certi ed CarbonNeutral® in accordance with the CarbonNeutral Protocol, meaning the emissions from production, shipping, and end-of-life disposal have been compensated for through the purchase of high quality, third-party veri ed offsets. YHEN_COVER_15_4.indd 1 2/3/2025 6:37:56 AM
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