Sights of sites: picturing heritage, power and exclusion

Abstract

This paper explores the visual representations used to illustrate, promote and communicate a particular idea of heritage in the tourism literature, which provides an instance within which to examine the material consequences of a dominant discourse. This examination takes place within the context of current New Labour policy initiatives, which have put forward a new role for heritage, both in terms of the touristic experiences it can provide and as an instrumental tool for social inclusion and civic engagement. It is argued in this paper that these consciously designed objectives have also opened up a conceptual space within which images of heritage are drawn upon to undertake a course of ideological work that affectively reaffirms and legitimizes the cultural symbols of an elite social group as a consensual representation of national heritage.