Salt in our veins. The patrimonialization processes of artisanal salt and saltscapes in Europe and their contribution to local development
[eng] This thesis aims to understand the processes of patrimonialization that take place in artisanal salinas in Europe and analyzes how these can contribute to the preservation of heritage, landscape and local development in their environment. In the last century, artisanal salt making sites in Eur...
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| Format: | doctoral thesis |
| Status: | Published version |
| Publication Date: | 2017 |
| Country: | España |
| Institution: | Universidad de Barcelona |
| Repository: | Dipòsit Digital de la UB |
| OAI Identifier: | oai:diposit.ub.edu:2445/116409 |
| Online Access: | https://hdl.handle.net/2445/116409 http://hdl.handle.net/10803/418811 |
| Access Level: | Open access |
| Keyword: | Patrimoni cultural Desenvolupament sostenible Protecció del patrimoni cultural Cultural heritage Salines Sustainable development Protection of cultural property |
| Summary: | [eng] This thesis aims to understand the processes of patrimonialization that take place in artisanal salinas in Europe and analyzes how these can contribute to the preservation of heritage, landscape and local development in their environment. In the last century, artisanal salt making sites in Europe have suffered a progressive decline, as a result of profound socio- economic changes, that have affected productive activities in general. This has limited their ability to compete in the mainstream salt market, which has ultimately led to the permanent abandonment of the salt making activity in most cases. In others, however, local stakeholders (environmentalists, cultural associations, scholars, public administrations, others) have been able to spark, push forward and even consolidate a patrimonialization process based on the sustainable use of the associated heritage and landscape values. To achieve this, many products and services associated with the production of high quality salt, as well as ecocultural tourism activities and salt-related museums, and the provision of health services from salt sub-products have been designed and offered. These have contributed to maintain a multifunctional use of the site with a diversified socioeconomic activity with enough profitability, while respecting the natural values of the sites. In this process, the sites have therefore moved from a situation of managerial indifference or even abandonment, to a collective, highly motivated citizen-led effort to recover the heritage and natural values of the sites. At a certain point, as the complexity of the processes increased, this horizontal and generally altruistic approach, needed to evolve towards a new management environment led by professionals. In the end, these sites have thus progressed from the salt business to the business of salt-related heritage. In this thesis, three paradigmatic cases of successful patrimonialization have been analyzed in Europe: the marais salants of Guérande, in France; the salinas of Sečovlje in Slovenia and the Læsø saltworks in Denmark. In addition, the patrimonialization processes have also been studied in the nine Spanish inland salinas which have been protected by law as a monument at the time of writing: Añana (Álava), Arcos de las Salinas (Teruel), Espartinas (Madrid), Gerri de la Sal (Lleida), Imón and San Juan (Guadalajara), Peralta de la Sal (Huesca), Poza de la Sal (Burgos) and Rambla Salada (Murcia). In these cases, the processes have been found to be in very different stages, from a situation of decline and almost ruin, to a consolidated patrimonialization process. Many cases, however, have been found to be in intermediate situations, with a patrimonialization process still in in progress, with the threats and weaknesses this stage entails. The comparison of these differences has allowed to understand the challenges and difficulties faced by this type of cultural heritage and landscapes, as well as to identify the good practices that have contributed to their progression towards a consolidated stage. To this end, the methodology used in this work combined tools from different disciplinary backgrounds. On the one hand, a set of qualitative and quantitative indicators has allowed to perform a comparative analysis of the sites. On the other hand, the study of the local bibliography and the field visits, in combination with personal interviews and group dynamics, has allowed to elaborate the narratives of the patrimonialization processes of each site. The comparative study between the twelve salinas has also led to the development of a conceptual management model that gathers the good practices and prevents the pitfalls observed in the study sites. Hopefully this model will contribute to the sustainable use of similar cultural landscapes and heritage to those studied here. |
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