Neopat: new heritage in the Pays de la Loire region

The ongoing extension of the patrimonial field appears to have no limits in as far as elements from the past are finding a fresh dynamic and are deemed essential for the future, while at the same time new elements are drawing attention, including intangible, natural, landscaping and vegetal, rural, craftwork, industrial, maritime, military and hospital heritages. 

The programme

The research programme is organised over three years (2010-2012) and is focused on four major scientific objectives: 

• Analysis of conditions for emergence of new patrimonial objects since the 1970s
• Drafting of a critical assessment of the activities of players in their approach to heritage
• Interpretation of patrimonial problems as revelations of conflicts with regard to use and issues of identity
• Demonstration of how all approaches to heritage initiated by social players and taken into account by public authorities are playing an ever greater part in territorial construction, taking the Pays de La Loire Region as an example.

Achievements

Among other activities underway is the creation of an Encyclopaedia and Atlas of new heritages in the Pays de La Loire Region. 

The project’s website also contains numbers of articles on heritage, including: 

• Cultural Landscapes: Regaining a Landscape´s Intangible Cultural Heritage / Eva-Maria Seng
• Underground cavities and troglodytes in Val de Loire / Bernard Tobie
• Making the utmost of fluvial and maritime heritage in Loire Atlantique:
  the example of “Rencontres du Fleuve” / Anaelle Paul

On the web:

• www.neopat.fr