Protecting a Bloodstained History: Battlefield Conservation in Scotland

Banks, Iain; Pollard, Tony

doi:10.1179/157407811x13027741134148

Cited by 21 publications

(7 citation statements)

References 4 publications

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“…England, for instance, launched in 1995 the Register of Historic Battlefields to provide statutory protection for those sites registered on the national heritage inventory (Historic England 2017a). When these battlefields are given heritage status, their particular associated battles are punctuated as momentous national historical events to be remembered (Banks and Pollard 2011). The conservation of historic battlefields has relatively little to do with preserving material relics that evidence that an armed conflict took place.…”

Section: Battlefields As Heritagementioning

confidence: 99%

“…The conservation of historic battlefields has relatively little to do with preserving material relics that evidence that an armed conflict took place. Instead, it involves the tasks of marking the location of the battle on the ground by putting up memorials, protecting the field from development through planning regulations or compulsory purchase orders, and staging battle re-enactments for edutainment purposes (Ryan 2007;Carman and Carman 2009;Banks and Pollard 2011). The protection of historic battlefields is primarily symbolic and done to captivate the imagination since memories of the bloody battles are often too distant to be recalled.…”

Section: Battlefields As Heritagementioning

confidence: 99%

“…Unlike the preservation of other tangible heritage assets, such as temples, palaces, historic buildings, and landscaped gardens, battlefield conservation is a complicated task. On the one hand, compared to most archaeological sites, which accumulate evidence of past activities over decades, centuries, or millennia, traces of past battles last for a relatively short time (Banks and Pollard 2011). On the other hand, marking the boundary of a battleground and designating it as heritage can be tricky because it is difficult to track and analyse how thousands of troops moved across hundreds of miles in a fight lasting several days or to several months (The Hong Kong Institute of Surveyors 2011).…”

Section: What Distinguishes Wwii Battlefields?mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Stakeholders who feel place attachment to a battlefield in a foreign land where their loved ones fought and perished experience a dislocated appreciation of their heritage, which has been described as 'orphan heritage' by Price (2005, 181). Most battlefield conservation work has been carried out in places within national borders where citizens have strong personal ties and collectively identity with the battle (Banks and Pollard 2011;Waterton and Dittmer 2016). For example, driven by patriotism, the US has large interest groups and charities that work together to conserve Civil War battlefields for the country's common good.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Issues in conserving ‘orphan heritage’ in Asia: WWII battlefield conservation in Hong Kong and Malaysia

Wang

DiMeolo

2021

Built Heritage

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Wars and conflict have existed since the beginning of time. Most battlefield conservation work is done for battlefields that lie in the borders of the nations that were involved, thus fostering citizens’ personal ties with the site and their national identities. However, some areas of the world suffer from conservation neglect because of the distance and separation between the battlefield’s location and the country to which it is relevant, thus creating a dislocated appreciation of heritage described by Price (J Confl Archaeol 1:181–196, 2005) as ‘orphan heritage’. This paper questions the extent to which post-colonial nations are willing to protect and conserve World War II battlefields on their soil. It examines two battlefields in Asia—the Gin Drinkers’ Line in Hong Kong, China, and the Green Ridge battlefield in Kampar, Malaysia—that have been the subject of campaigns to recognise their transnational heritage value. Both battles involved multinational Allied forces led by the British against Japanese troops. A combination of political and economic factors has influenced how the two battlefields are understood and appreciated by citizens and local governments in the host nations. The paper delineates how these two Asian battlegrounds, which are relatively unknown to the general public, have been brought to the public’s attention and by whom as well as how the local governments have handled the demand to safeguard the battlefields. We argue that the global nature of WWII makes its commemoration geographically challenging and politically contentious. The WWII battlefields in Asia attest to the historical authenticity of past conflicts and thus should be conserved as neutrally as possible. The successful protection of battlefields in Malaysia and Hong Kong thus far can be largely attributed to grassroots initiatives, pressure from stakeholder countries, such as the UK, and academic research whereby the significance of the battleground is made known to people in Hong Kong and Malaysia. With public support, responsible government leadership and a shared understanding of their importance as transnational heritage, WWII battlefields can help calm bitter resentment and promote reconciliation.

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Section: Battlefields As Heritagementioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Battlefields As Heritagementioning

confidence: 99%

Section: What Distinguishes Wwii Battlefields?mentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 2 more Smart Citations

Issues in conserving ‘orphan heritage’ in Asia: WWII battlefield conservation in Hong Kong and Malaysia

Wang

DiMeolo

2021

Built Heritage

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“…It seems unlikely that all of those 3.5 million visitors were visiting New York exclusively to visit Ground Zero, and it seems reasonable, therefore, to speculate that dark tourism is an additional motivation to visit urban environments when there are a range of pull factors at play (Crompton, 1979) to entice and encourage visitation. Rural locations, however, also have the potential to offer resources for the dark tourism market, whether these are the now-empty battlefield sites of Scotland (Banks & Pollard, 2011), the 'rural dystopias' of post-agricultural Australia (Rofe 2012) or the haunted castles of Transylvania (Light 2017). …”

Section: Dark Tourismmentioning

confidence: 99%

Dark cities: a dark tourism index for Europe’s tourism cities, based on the analysis of DMO websites

Powell

Kennell

Barton

2018

IJTC

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Dark tourism is a topic of increasing interest, but it is poorly understood when considering its significance for mainstream and commercial tourism. This paper investigates the significance of dark tourism in the top ten most visited European tourist cities and proposes a dark tourism index for Europe's tourism cities. MethodologyData was collected from the websites of the cities' Destination Management Organisations (DMOs) using a content analysis methodology, based on keywords related to dark tourism taken from the research literature in this area. Descriptive statistics were produced and the variance between the frequencies of keywords related to each city was analysed for statistical significance. These results were then used to construct a darkness ranking of the cities. FindingsThere are significant differences in the extent to which dark tourism products and services are promoted by the DMOs of Europe's top ten most visited European cities. The ranking of cities by darkness does not correspond to the ranking by visitor numbers, and further qualitative analysis suggests that that the ranking is also independent of the actual presence of dark sites within the destination. This implies that European city DMOs are engaging with the emerging dark tourism market with to varying degrees. Research LimitationsThe purposive sample of ten cities can be extended in future research to increase the validity of the findings of this paper. A further limitation is the selection of keywords for content analysis, which have been developed following the literature review contained below. Future research could develop an extended list of keywords using a systematic review process. Research ValueThis paper shows that it is possible to create a ranking of tourist cities in terms of their darkness, and that this methodology could be extended to a much larger sample size. This links dark tourism research to the urban tourism literature and also offers possibilities for creating a global ranking that could be used by destinations to judge their success in engaging with the dark tourism market, as well as by tour operators seeking to develop products for the same market. Key WordsDark tourism, cities, Europe, content analysis, urban tourism IntroductionThe academic study of dark tourism gathered momentum in the early twenty-first century (Stone 2013), and is reflecting the growing interest of the citizens of postmodern societies in the sites of death and disasters -an interest that needs deeper research to be understood fully.It also reflects the increased sensitivity of the international community to the significance of such events for nations, national identities and the direction of their history. Dark tourism sites offer the opportunity to capture and conserve the "dark" memory of humanity and make it available, through domestic and international tourism, to the wider public. It should also be noted that vicarious thrill seeking and entertainment motivations are also significant factors that have affected the recent growth of t...

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The Legacy Surrounding Us

Mushynsky

2021

The Archaeology, History and Heritage of WWII Karst Defenses in the Pacific

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Protecting a Bloodstained History: Battlefield Conservation in Scotland

Cited by 21 publications

References 4 publications

Issues in conserving ‘orphan heritage’ in Asia: WWII battlefield conservation in Hong Kong and Malaysia

Issues in conserving ‘orphan heritage’ in Asia: WWII battlefield conservation in Hong Kong and Malaysia

Dark cities: a dark tourism index for Europe’s tourism cities, based on the analysis of DMO websites

The Legacy Surrounding Us

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