TEHIC-Handbook_of_best_practices

3. Outlook for heritage interpretation in Europe and future prospects. TEHIC Towards a European Heritage Interpretation Curriculum 38 Until the 1960s nobody challenged the fact that the academy guided patrimonialisa - tion processes. That decade was key, as it provided an unprecedented democratising boost to heritage creation and, more importantly, to heritage management. Since intan - gible heritage has been taken into consideration, heritage processes have become widespread. It was precisely in the 1960s that heritage interpretation was given a new boost by Tilden 2 , coinciding with the rise of the welfare society, and with it the consolidation of a leisure culture that included visits to natural and cultural monuments among its activi- ties. Since then, heritage has been a segment of activity that has been growing in developed countries as the welfare state was extended to larger sectors of society. In the late 1990s David Uzzell reflected on the need to analyse the four decades since Freeman Tilden wrote Interpreting our Heritage (1957). According to Uzzell, "interpreta- tion has played a crucial role in regenerating declining urban, industrial and rural areas through tourism and conservation programmes. Equally though, it has been accused of trivialising history and inculcating within the public a reactionary, superficial and roman - tic view of the past (…) Can we say with as much confidence that heritage interpretation has played an important role in enhancing people’s awareness, understanding and appre - ciation of time and place?”  3 David Uzzell's thoughts bring an important issue to the table: if heritage interpreta - tion does not have a social dimension, if it does not have a positive impact on social development, if it does not consider the construction of identities, then heritage inter- pretation becomes a toy that may be fun but will never be a tool for building democratic awareness. In other words, David Uzzell confronts Heritage Interpretation with the issue of what its mission should be as a discipline devoted essentially to the enhancement of heritage: “facilitating people's access to the enjoyment of heritage, in other words, teach - ing and helping people to enjoy heritage”. It is precisely around this mission that it would be possible and feasible to find the necessary meeting point between the different inter - pretive traditions in order to project them into the future. What is certain is that the professional practice of heritage interpretation in Europe is conditioned by the current perception of patrimonialisation processes. Nowadays, cul - tural heritage and the environment constitute not only an element of identity and collective affirmation, worthy of being preserved and passed on to future generations, 2 Tilden, F. (1957) Interpreting Our Heritage , Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press. 3 Uzzell, DL (1998) Interpreting Our Heritage : A Theoretical Interpretation in DL Uzzell and R. Ballantyne (eds.) Contemporary Issues in Heritage and Environmental Interpretation: Problems and Prospects , London. The Stationery Office.