Paper short abstract:

New development projects in Norwegian towns have put emphasis on culture and creative industries. Although cultural heritage can be seen as a means for developing place-specific character, several development projects primarily play on international trends and result in stereotype townscapes.

Paper long abstract:

From being primarily an intrinsic value defined by experts, cultural heritage is turning into an instrument to revitalise and create new businesses in Norwegian towns. The pulsating nerve of urban life necessitates constant changes and hereby continuously challenges an essential problem in cultural heritage - the balance between change and conservation. Emphasis paid to culture and creative industries has shaped a considerable part of the new development projects. These tendencies can be described and understood in light of international trends. By copying ideas tested elsewhere, the ability to create uniqueness diminishes correspondingly and tends to act as a "serial reproduction of culture" (Harvey 1989). Cultural heritage can constitute a platform for developing place-specific character in urban regions. Much of the new urban fabric is however designed in accordance with international trends and play on a "glocalised" image (Beriatos et al. 2004), rather than stressing the uniqueness which exist in the reciprocity between local historic fabric, townscape and surrounding nature. The study shows that current planning practice has evident limitations that affect the opportunities for exercising a comprehensive cultural heritage management. Although three of the four towns have been classified as valuable historic centres for a considerable time, this does not carry enough weight to give the cultural heritage managers empowerment outside their limited domain. Despite that use of strategic plans is rampant in municipal planning the situation is domineered by a large degree of "patchwork planning" where each project is considered independently, hereby causing unwanted and unexpected results for adjoining districts.