Heritage sites, value and wellbeing: learning from the COVID-19 pandemic in England

Joanna Sofaer; Ben Davenport; Marie Louise Stig Sørensen; Eirini Gallou; David Uzzell

doi:10.1080/13527258.2021.1955729

Heritage sites, value and wellbeing: learning from the COVID-19 pandemic in England

Joanna Sofaer^*
, Ben Davenport
, Marie Louise Stig Sørensen
, Eirini Gallou
, David Uzzell

^*Corresponding author for this work

Strathclyde Business School

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

61 Citations (Scopus)

76 Downloads (Pure)

Abstract

The COVID-19 lockdown of society in 2020 deprived people of access to many heritage sites. This made the public uniquely aware of why they visited heritage sites and what they valued about the visits, once heritage sites reopened. In particular, regaining access framed visits in terms of personal agency and wellbeing. Notions of capability, social connections, ontological security, and trust–all important elements of wellbeing–were widely shared values. Heritage sites also offered distinct opportunities for combining hedonic (subjective) and eudaimonic (psychological) wellbeing effects. While heritage value cannot be reduced to wellbeing effects, we suggest that constructive awareness of how these effects may be generated can enhance the outcome of visits to heritage sites.

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	1117-1132
Number of pages	16
Journal	International Journal of Heritage Studies
Volume	27
Issue number	11
Early online date	28 Jul 2021
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1080/13527258.2021.1955729
Publication status	E-pub ahead of print - 28 Jul 2021

Funding

We would like to thank Historic England and The Heritage Alliance for supporting Places of Joy: Heritage After Lockdown, as well as staff and visitors at the sites where we conducted fieldwork. We also thank the anonymous referees for their helpful comments on the manuscript.

UN SDGs

This output contributes to the following UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

SDG 3 Good Health and Well-being

Keywords

COVID-19
heritage sites
wellbeing

Access to Document

10.1080/13527258.2021.1955729Licence: CC BY 4.0

Sofaer-etal-JHS-2021-Heritage-sites-value-and-wellbeing-learning-from-the-COVID-19-pandemicFinal published version, 426 KBLicence: CC BY 4.0

Cite this

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title = "Heritage sites, value and wellbeing: learning from the COVID-19 pandemic in England",

abstract = "The COVID-19 lockdown of society in 2020 deprived people of access to many heritage sites. This made the public uniquely aware of why they visited heritage sites and what they valued about the visits, once heritage sites reopened. In particular, regaining access framed visits in terms of personal agency and wellbeing. Notions of capability, social connections, ontological security, and trust–all important elements of wellbeing–were widely shared values. Heritage sites also offered distinct opportunities for combining hedonic (subjective) and eudaimonic (psychological) wellbeing effects. While heritage value cannot be reduced to wellbeing effects, we suggest that constructive awareness of how these effects may be generated can enhance the outcome of visits to heritage sites.",

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ER -

Heritage sites, value and wellbeing: learning from the COVID-19 pandemic in England

Abstract

Funding

UN SDGs

Keywords

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