Conservation As Shared Responsibility: Social Equity, Social Justice, and the Public Good

Abstract

Abstract:Social inequity presents a risk to cultural heritage, but conservation has a strong contribution to make to social equity and justice goals. Exploring case studies where access to conservation, and thus the right to heritage, is disrupted by social inequities, this paper argues that conservation—as a normative discipline premised on the idea of a future in which heritage is accessible and open to interpretation, use, and enjoyment—must, like social equity and justice movements, work to create more equitable sociopolitical futures.Theorizing that conservation is a public good, case studies of Aboriginal art centers in remote and regional Australia and conservation education in Australia establish the need to rebalance conservation in areas that have experienced past structural injustice. Drawing on ethical and political philosophy, critical evaluations of the profession that attempt to redefine conservation discourses are proposed to demonstrate the obligation of conservation to account for principles of social equity and justice. Overall, the paper reflects on the philosophical, ethical, and societal implications for the profession of understanding conservation as a public good.