Cultural heritage social value and community mapping

In the light of the growing awareness of the importance of assessing cultural heritage social value and of community involvement in heritage-based planning processes, the paper hints an innovative and people-based approach, which attempts to base the process of appraisal of cultural heritage social value on a wide-spread participatory tool: community mapping. The paper moves from a review of the steps made by estimative theory in assessing cultural heritage social value, with a view to understanding what the current state of art is, what main issues can be pinpointed and, thus, how to enhance existing theories on this matter. Later, it focuses on community mapping, with the aim of understanding which benefits can stem from a participatory process based on this tool. Finally, the opportunity of applying community maps as a key element in the assessment of the social values of cultural heritage and its possible implications are discussed.