Heritage Theories and Policies

Code:

MHP022

Acronym:

TPP

Keywords
Classification	Keyword
OFICIAL	History

Instance: 2025/2026 - 2S

Active?	Yes
Responsible unit:	Department of History, Political and International Studies
Course/CS Responsible:	Master in History and Heritage

Cycles of Study/Courses

Acronym	No. of Students	Study Plan	Curricular Years	Credits UCN	Credits ECTS	Contact hours	Total Time
MHP	11	MHP - Study Plan	1	-	6	41	162

Teaching language

Suitable for English-speaking students

Objectives

MAIN GOAL:
To make a reflection about POLICIES (institutional) and THEORIES (concepts about heritage and its evolution in the long term).

SPECIFIC GOALS:

- To observe senses and contexts where one can speak of heritage: “public use of History”, and/or “traditions’ inventions”, expressions which translate the political manipulation of history and culture;
- To develop the perception and the contexts of information production in time and space, as well as of the identification and validation of information sources, developing specific competencies in the critical use of documentation;
- To measure memory policies, of the objects and products that emerge from the construction of human societies; of the reflection and comprehension of memory construction in time and space (world of work, handicraft, industry, maritime/coastal, religious, rural, and urban world, etc.), by crossing and working the documentary and bibliographical information;
- to analyze heritage theories and policies within the framework of the discussion about the materiality and immateriality of "things people want to save".

Learning outcomes and competences

Students must be able to identify the contextual processes of heritage recognition, between the “public use of History”, and/or the “invention of traditions”, between theories and practice.

- be able to assess the policies of “memory”, of the objects and products that emerge in the construction of human societies, of reflection and understanding, in time and space, of memorial constructions, crossing and working with documentary and bibliographic information);

- understand the mechanisms of invention and construction of heritage – from the ambivalence of the concept of heritage to the expansion of its scope;

- acquire skills in reading the “site”, whatever it may be, from movable object to property, from water to panel, taking into account heritage policies;

- reflect on the realities and hypotheses of safeguarding, organization, study, and cultural/scientific dissemination of a set of archives, which receive the generic designation of "community archives";

- to propose a path that allows the identification of the contextual processes of heritage recognition, between “public use of History”, and/or “invention of traditions”, between theories and practice.

Working method

Presencial

Pre-requirements (prior knowledge) and co-requirements (common knowledge)

not applicable

Program

Part I - heritage, identity, memory
- WHAT TO DO WITH HERITAGE TODAY? AND TOMORROW?

1. Heritage or heritages? – A derivation? An invention? A policy from the past? – a critical review of heritage ideologies and policies;

2. Theory(ies) and practice(s) – from the “nation-state” to the widespread commercialization of the world: heritage, identity, memoir, and authenticity issues;

3. Heritage and creation: “fabricating” heritage: “from the cathedral to the teaspoon”, from the “memory places” to the “non-places” – the ontological vivification: the image and policies of visibility and attractiveness.

4. Heritage, identity, and community (ies).

II PART - HERITAGE AS A PROCESS - PATRIMONIALIZATION

1. the faces of a "cube"
2. authenticity or recreation
3. the fixity of the "types of heritage" - debates
4. the "freshness" of environmental heritage - between the human sciences and the "exact"
5. the "new look" and "the cities we have not visited"

Mandatory literature

Guillaume, Marc; A Política do Património, Porto, Campo das Letras, 2003
Smith Laurajane; Uses of heritage. ISBN: 978-0-415-31831-0
Nora, Pierre (dir. de); Les Lieux de la Mémoire, Paris, Gallimard, 1984-1992
González-Varas, Ignácio; Conservación de Bienes Culturales. Teoria, Historia, Princípios y Normas, Madrid, Ediciones Cátedra, 2003 - 3ª ed.
Peralta Elsa 340; Patrimónios e identidades. ISBN: 972-774-233-5
Anico Marta 340; Heritage and identity. ISBN: 978-0-415-45336-3
Isabel Lopes Cardoso; Paisagem património
Silva , Armando Malheiro da; Paradigmas serviços e mediações em ciência da informação. ISBN: 978-8560323-33-3

Complementary Bibliography

Connerton, Paul; Como as Sociedades Recordam, Oeiras, Celta Editora, 1993
Heinich, Nathalie ; La fabrique du Patrimoine. “De la cathédrale à la petite cuillère ». , Éditions de la Maison des Sciences de l’homme, 2009

Comments from the literature

Specific bibliography will be presented.

Teaching methods and learning activities

The classes have a strong theoretical component, although discussions around experiences such as decision making individual, collective and institutional. Or literature exercises between two narratives: one of the history of an object, "a thing" and another of its transformation in heritage: the first is focused on how and why the place is significant, and may include the history of architecture and artistic as well as political, economic and social, the second should be focused on how it was stored, managed and interpreted.
This exercise should provide a definition of the differences between the two study objects and how they need each other.

And still a written comment about memories and identities - material and immaterial - or an exercise in an area of bibliographic heritage (natural, archaeological – in the long term, art, architecture, documentary, photographic, immaterial, etc..).

keywords

Social sciences > Cultural studies
Humanities > History
Humanities > History > Archaeology > Comparative archaeology
Social sciences > Anthropology > Ethnology
Social sciences > Anthropology

Evaluation Type

Distributed evaluation without final exam

Assessment Components

Designation	Weight (%)
Apresentação/discussão de um trabalho científico	30,00
Trabalho escrito	35,00
Trabalho prático ou de projeto	25,00
Prova oral	10,00
Total:	100,00

Amount of time allocated to each course unit

Designation	Time (hours)
Estudo autónomo	75,00
Frequência das aulas	30,00
Apresentação/discussão de um trabalho científico	2,00
Trabalho de investigação	25,00
Trabalho escrito	30,00
Total:	162,00

Eligibility for exams

Attendance at a minimum of 75% of classes, except in cases foreseen by law.

Calculation formula of final grade

Each student must actively participate in classes under an assessment regime that includes oral and written exercises, and the writing of a final essay also presented in the classroom.

Examinations or Special Assignments

According to UP regulation

Internship work/project

not applicable

Special assessment (TE, DA, ...)

According to UP regulation

Classification improvement

According to UP regulation