ABSTRACT
This chapter argues that in order to achieve a greater understanding of why and how people develop emotional attachments to historic urban places, we need to develop new methods and embrace new and different sources. Moreover, we suggest that people-centred methodological enhancement can be informed by shifting our conceptual horizons. The introduction proposes that the concept of place attachment can be brought into closer dialogue with those working in the field of Critical Heritage Studies. We argue that this concept can help us to bridge the gap in accessing and thus understanding why the past matters emotionally. To achieve this, we outline what people-centred conservation and place attachment is and how thinking in this way changes the kinds of methods we use and sources we collect and thus the kinds of policies and practices that are possible within scholarship and an evolving heritage sector.
