Research Team

This project is a partnership between the University of Stirling and the National Trust for Scotland.

Principle Investigator: Siân Jones

Siân Jones is Professor of Heritage and Director of the Centre for Environment, Heritage and Policy at the University of Stirling. She is an interdisciplinary scholar with expertise in cultural heritage and the role of the past in the production of power, identity, and sense of place. She has over twenty-years of research experience investigating the contemporary social values of heritage, initially working with Historic Environment Scotland to examine the social values of early medieval sculptured stones in the early 2000s and most recently as a co-investigator for the Deep Cities project focusing on the social values of urban historic environments. Recent projects focus on conservation practice, authenticity, replicas and reconstructions, participatory approaches to social value and community heritage, and care for cultural heritage in the context of war. Her latest book, The Object of Conservation (2022, with T. Yarrow), is an ethnographic account of professional practice in a national heritage organisation.

Research Fellow and Co-Investigator: Elizabeth Robson

Elizabeth Robson is Postdoctoral Research Fellow in the Heritage team at the University of Stirling. Her research interests are in the contemporary significance of historic places and the impact they have on society, with a focus on collaborative knowledge production, people-centred methods, and the role of communities in heritage management, placemaking, and planning processes. She has a professional background in community development and completed her PhD in 2021 at the University of Stirling. Her doctoral project with Historic Environment Scotland focused on methods for assessing social values of the historic environment. The research findings were translated into a Social Value Toolkit, which is already having wide-ranging impact and will be applied in the course of this project.

Project Manager on behalf of the Trust: Paula Whitelaw

Paula Whitelaw is Head of Heritage Planning at the National Trust for Scotland and an Honorary Associate Professor at the University of Stirling.

Featured Image: Output from a focus group activity to identify keywords associated with social value. Photo credit: Elizabeth Robson