Strategy and Sentiment: Mobilizing Heritage in Defense of Place

This paper examines the processes through which notions of heritage confer historic significance upon places—particularly young sites and structures. Using data drawn from observations of public meetings, media accounts, planning documents and interviews with key activists, I show how a forty-year-old equestrian showground in Santa Barbara, California was defended using claims of history and heritage common to historic preservation struggles. The case suggests that the conceptual fluidity of heritage allows actors to attach its powerful meanings to sites that are not particularly old. Conclusions also discuss the role of ritual in forging links between heritage and place, and the viability of heritage claims in varying locales and for groups of differing statuses.