TEHIC-Handbook_of_best_practices

2. An overview of the concept of heritage interpretation and its evolution. TEHIC Towards a European Heritage Interpretation Curriculum 18 In short, this managerial vision of heritage interpretation therefore fosters: · The conservation and management of legacy and territory. · Community involvement, care, and development. · The visitor experience. Some aspects of the evolution of heritage interpretation as a discipline J ust like any other discipline, heritage interpretation has evolved since its ori - gins, adapting to the times, to new knowledge, research, approaches, and social changes. Obviously, not all transformations are equally fast and do not have the same permeability in different contexts and cultures; in fact, many of them continue to es - tablish themselves in society, thus, in a sense, forcing their inclusion in the different disciplines and professions. Of course, heritage interpretation is not, and should not be, immune to these. Other transformations are likely to have a long way to go, and many are still to come. The following table summarises some of the main changes and developments in her- itage interpretation over the years. It is important to note that not all of them are perfectly defined, but rather they reflect a trend. Some refer to philosophy and principles, others are based mainly on the methodology of implementation. As this discipline emerged in the context of the declaration of the first protected nat - ural areas, it was initially called "environmental interpretation", but in 1985, the Canadian Congress decided to change the name to "heritage interpretation". Without a doubt, this vision is much more inclusive than the previous one, as it includes distinct types of herit - age: natural, cultural, industrial, archaeological, and so on: these, in turn, are interrelated with each other. Nevertheless, this does not overcome the idea of the dichotomic vision between the natural and the cultural, as two aspects separated from each other, which certainly does not reflect reality, where such a separation does not exist, or is very blurred, or even cannot (and should not) be separated for a deep understanding. This is why for some years now and at a more general level, a more inclusive approach has been promoted, in which both environmental and socio-economic aspects are re- flected: it is the so-called eco-social approach, and it is intricately linked to emerging concepts, such as ecosystem services or cultural rights.