This study assesses the efforts of the State Historic Preservation Office in relating
Historic Preservation (HP) with Heritage Tourism (HT) against principles of sustainability. It
also seeks to contribute toward an integrated heritage management framework at the State
Historic Preservation level that is based on theoretical principles and empirical study. The focus
is on the heritage management practices as performed by the Texas Historical Commission
(THC). This case offers good understanding about the relationship between two major interests
involved in heritage management: HP and HT. It is used to conduct a constructive evaluation of
the HP-HT relationship in terms of its ‘existence’ and ‘effectiveness’ guided by sustainability
and good governance principles.
The study uses qualitative research based on a constructivist paradigm. Data are
gathered using three research methods: documents, in-depth interviews, and participant
observation. Documents were collected about the THC’s heritage management programs,
including: the Texas Heritage Trails Program and the Visionaries in Preservation program. Ten
in-depth interviews were conducted with state and regional stakeholders involved in activities
related to these programs. Observation was made for the visionary process in Nacogdoches, Texas. Coding and categorizing for the interviews and documentary evidences were used as the
fundamental analytic process. Coding included open coding, selective coding for core categories,
and development of patterns and themes. This process assisted in identifying categories,
properties, themes and the relationships between them that eventually helped in building a
cohesive understanding of the HP-HT relationship as performed by the THC.
The research found that heritage management efforts of the THC are not consistent with
sustainability and good governance principles. Effectiveness of these efforts is affected by
factors of heritage management approaches, partnership building, capacity building attempts,
strategic processes, authority devolution, and accountability relations. A new framework for
integrated heritage management has been developed from this study to assist the state
government in achieving not only good management but good governance, since it will guide the
organizations to more closely align with the social and cultural realities of their communities and
develop meaningful and responsive heritage management policies and strategies.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:tamu.edu/oai:repository.tamu.edu:1969.1/ETD-TAMU-1039 |
| Date | 15 May 2009 |
| Creators | Al Rabady, Rama Ibrahim |
| Contributors | Jamal, Tazim, Woodcock, David |
| Source Sets | Texas A and M University |
| Language | en_US |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Book, Thesis, Electronic Dissertation, text |
| Format | electronic, application/pdf, born digital |
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