ABSTRACT

Policies and measures towards the upkeep of cultural heritage are influenced by historical processes and priorities as well as pressing contemporary issues. This article explores measures and attitudes towards the cultural heritage of agriculture in Norway. Relying on recent studies and concrete examples, it shows how ‘ideal landscapes’ as depicted by painters in the national Romantic era are part of the frame of reference for public managers and probably also influence the way in which people in general view agrarian landscapes. However, the pattern of ‘favoured landscapes’ in the context of agri-environmental measures and in local practical landscape management projects is also strongly influenced by the development of farming as such, the development of the agrarian landscape and people's aesthetic or practical preferences on a general level. Heritage cannot be defined and taken for granted once and for all. Heritage is dynamic. At the same time, cultural heritage management as a public responsibility needs to prioritize different forms of heritage. What is of great importance is to critically reflect around decisions taken and acknowledge the variety of views and definitions.

KEY WORDS

Cultural heritage; measures, landscape management; landscape values; farming

INTRODUCTION

Cultural heritage as a concept, a field of research, public management responsibility and as a part of human practice and lifeworld is multi-faceted. Views, definitions, assessments and measures are numerous. Several actors or interests influence how cultural heritage is defined and valued and how it is physically manifested in our surroundings. This paper will address examples of ‘appointed heritage’ in a past and present context based on recent research and heritage policy trends within a Norwegian setting.

THE EMBLEMATIC STATUS OF AGRICULTURE's CULTURAL HERITAGE

National cultural heritage in a Norwegian context is strongly linked to rurality and to agricultural practices, objects and landscapes. This can be explained by several interrelated factors. Firstly, due to the natural conditions at the northern fringe of Europe, the economy has traditionally relied on primary businesses, especially pastoral systems adapted to the abundance of outlying lands in forests and mountains and the scarcity of lowland areas suitable for arable production. Agro-pastoral systems have developed in many forms and also in combination with fisheries and forestry. Secondly, Norway was late to industrialize and urbanize and an agrarian based and partly subsistence economy had a stronghold for a long time.