Heritage Connections Research Articles

Estonian heritage connections—people, past and place: the Pakri Peninsula

The article focuses on the meaning of heritage, especially on its connection to time, space and people, and is concerned with signification, representation and identity at a national scale. Key questions are how the image of Estonianness creates national heritage out of diverse legacies and how these messages fit the local circumstances. This is examined in the case of Paldiski, a small town on the Pakri Peninsula west of the Estonian capital Tallinn. The area encompasses all that is considered non‐Estonian, but nevertheless reflects the history and geography of the country and thus is used for critical examination of current heritage creation and preservation.

World Trade Law, Culture, Heritage and Tourism. Towards a Holistic Conceptual Approach?

This article argues that law is an important factor in the consideration of the evolution of tourism discourse. Thus it is important for academics to consider the law-tourism connection. But law is a dynamic phenomenon that is experiencing change. Within law, the domain of world trade is increasingly significant. In addition, the conceptualisation of culture and heritage is ongoing and as the law has implications for the development of those concepts, then correspondingly the law-culture and heritage connection should be considered. World trade law in turn has culture and heritage implications. Tourism will be affected by both the evolution of world trade and evolving conceptions of culture and heritage, not least legal ones. Accordingly, as a result of the increasing interpenetration and interconnections of issues, it is submitted that consideration of the four conceptual domains of world trade, law, tourism and culture and heritage, suggests the desirability of a holistic approach to (or awareness of) the consideration of certain issues that may fall into the intellectual space advanced by the potential intersection of these issues. This is especially justifiable in view of the multiplicity of academic viewpoints that studies of tourism embrace. It may be necessary in order to provide options for the solution of legal issues that involve these factors. Thus it is argued that it is important to consider the domain delineated above in a holistic way, recognising that the forces of development act reflexively on each other as a start in order to overcome inevitable epistemological difficulties.