Heritage routes - new requirements for use of instruments and forms of collaboration in heritage management

The main objective of this research project has been to explore how heritage and cultural environments can contribute to place development and what kinds of management strategies can secure a sustainable development. The heritage routes of the Telemark Canal (Telemarkskanalen) and the pilgrim trail called Gudbrandsdalsleden were chosen as cases. The former takes visitors on a boat ride along a canal representing industrial heritage of the 19th century. The latter is a medieval pilgrim trail from Oslo to Trondheim, reinvented in the 1990ties. The slow mode of travelling (by boat and on foot, respectively) along these routes, through several municipalities, provides potentials to connect different heritage sites and communities. This research has accordingly paid attention to the opportunities and the challenges this represent for both management of the routes and place development in the local communities along the routes. Both qualitative and quantitative methods have been used in this research project. The number of travelers along the pilgrim route has increased considerably during the recent years. Its contribution to local economic, social and cultural value creation has nevertheless been relatively limited. The capacities of the communities to take advantage of the route for development purposes are clearly present. However, the realization of the potentials is hampered by both certain characteristics of these kinds of heritage routes and the partly opposing objectives of the different stakeholders with regard to the use and the management of the route. In its origin, pilgrimage used to be a religious act. Reaching a holy goal, in this case is the Nidaros Cathedral the thumb of St. Olav, was its main purpose. Today?s pilgrims tend in contrast to be as much attracted by the journey itself as by reaching the goal at the end of the route. Also made apparent by research on other pilgrimage routes (e.g. Santiago de Compostela in Spain), modern pilgrims tend to experience the journey as an intense and bodily experience, associated with wellbeing as much as with struggle and renunciation. The distinction between the secular and the religious motives and experiences thus becomes diffuse. Pilgrimage differs from many other forms of tourism, as the attraction tend to be the experiences of the hiking through numerous municipalities and several counties, rather than an attraction located within a geographically limited place. Within the local communities, there are mostly small circles of inhabitants engaging with pilgrimage and with the trail passing through the places where they live. Moreover, pilgrimage involves various kinds of motives, experiences and interests; such as outdoor recreation and nature experiences, religious heritage and spiritual experiences, local and national cultural heritage and tourism development. These numerous dimensions are not easily reconcilable in every instance. Both within and between the municipalities, among representatives of the church and various religious movements, between the regional centres for management of the route and among NGOs, it varies to what extent and how the different dimensions are emphasized. Although conflicts are rare, some differences in the various approaches to pilgrimage tend to produce paradoxes and dilemmas that affect both the management of pilgrimage and the possibilities of taking advantage of the pilgrimage for value creation and place development. Even though the Telemark Canal is marketed as a comprehensive product, the management of attractions associated with the local communities along the canal is characterized by fragmentation. This is in part explain by the difficulties of establishing development initiatives and projects across municipality borders. Moreover, the canal has some characteristics that are similar to the pilgrim route, as the journey along the canal tend to be the main attraction, while the local communities and the landscape are viewed from the boat. The attractions local communities may provide for travellers must become better integrated into the heritage experiences these two heritage routes offer. To achieve this, local businesses should enter into collaboration between themselves, but even with museums and cultural centres, as well as the public bodies involved in the management. Private stakeholders with both large financial resources and a high degree of idealism can be important for value creation in these respects, as they tend to possess the organizational power required to win support for initiatives by both authorities and private actors. As for the pilgrim route especially, the management of pilgrimage is characterized by the need to balance an ambition to make the route into one of several Norwegian tourism products against stakeholders who believe such a development will result in the loss of pilgrimage as a unique experience.

The purpose of the project is to explore (1) how heritages and cultural environments can represent sources for place development and (2) what kinds of policy instruments and forms of stakeholder cooperation that can ensure sustainable management. Recent shifts from top-down decision-making processes to more collaborative approaches means that management issues are increasingly encompassed by diverse interests, goals and values. A central aim of the project is accordingly to provide knowledge on how these changes imply constraints and opportunities for the uses of instruments and for modes of co-operation. In order to examine these issues, we have chosen one of the pilgrim routes from Oslo to Trondheim and the Telemark Canal as study areas. The heritagization of these old transport routes may facilitate the interconnection of different heritage sites, cultural environments and communities. One of the principal goals of the project is to examine how management practices incorporate these kinds of potentials. In what manner the heritage routes may contribute to place development, and how the public and stakeholders engage with the routes are a central research questions. Given that pilgrims and canal travelers share the characteristics of so called slow travel, it will be paid attention to how these mobility practices can embody particular ways of relating to heritages and landscapes, and to what extent this resonate with moral and political evaluations of local inhabitants and various stakeholders on how landscapes should be engaged with. While slow travel involves the use of low-carbon transportation, the effects of and adaptations to climate change aspects, such as flooding and overgrowth, will be focus on. Qualitative and quantitative methods in mixed models form the basis for data collection. The implementation of the project will take place in cooperation with central stakeholders, as well as with international research connections.