The new Cultural Heritage Law of Galicia: a critical reading

Abstract

This paper involves a reflection about the new Law of Cultural Heritage of Galicia in force since August 2016. Our reading, complemented with other regional heritage laws, allows us to create some hypotheses about the trends of change that are taking place in the administration heritage discourse. These trends indicate a transition from the abstract and presumably neutral space of functionalism to another space, meaningful and rich in values, in parallel to an ontological expansion of the heritage concept. Similarly, the new law incorporates in a clearer way both the symbolic and identity dimensions alongside the economic dimension of heritage as a resource for adding value. These trends of change and the new official discursive practice are evaluated from a dialectical perspective, assessing them as part of a necessary process of ontological, epistemological, political and economic widening of the heritage field. At the same time, we analyse the emergence of the new effects of reification, alienation and commodification produced by these changes, and contextualize them as part of the neoliberal paradigm.