Discordant landscapes. The crisis of the patrimonial valuation and a reality in contravia

Abstract

In the context of an increasingly globalized world, which affects in particular the Latin American cities and is oriented, among other things, to homogenize consumption practices, heritage (material and inmaterial) assets are transformed into merchandise that adds value to the cities. They must respond to the demand by the interest they arouse for international tourism and for the survival of some local economies. The actions that are taken from the governmental instances for the management of the patrimony tend to see their values from an instrumentalist perspective that in the majority of the cases does not consider the true necessities of the population that inhabits these places, generating gentrification processes or taking actions where there is a tendency to petrify the practices and to impose simulations aimed at satisfying the expectations of tourists eager to consume "culture". Valuation, therefore, requires broader visions where there is a holistic approach to the territory. In this sense, the notion of landscape contributes to this purpose. Without excluding other types of assessment, the understanding of a heritage site from that notion of landscape allows us to approach the problem from different aspects and achieve a better recognition for planning in order to be able to take more relevant actions in the management of these places.