The 4th HMO International HerMa Conference on Heritage Management will contribute to this largely absent debate by reconsidering ruins qua physical remains, for their evocative potential, and in particular to provide a philosophy to inform heritage management at all kinds of scales: from museum objects to historical buildings, archaeological sites to historical landscapes.

The main subjects raised will revolve around the following sorts of concerns:

1. RUINS OF WHAT/AS WHAT? — matters of identity, the relation between parts and wholes, as well as the ‘authenticity’ of restored monuments in relation to what remains of their original material substance … and other ruinous topics. Theoretical and philosophical contributions are most welcome in this session.
2. RUINS FOR WHAT/WHERE? — the purposes, criteria, hierarchies and decision making in the preservation of ruinous monuments, through case studies of theory and of practice.
3. RUINS FOR WHOM? — the different approaches and desires of the general public and the experts: the various empathies expressed (or not) towards ruins, ruins of one’s own or another’s culture, the relation of the part to the whole and management strategies devised to accentuate, remedy, mitigate or even celebrate the fragmented condition of the archetypal ruin. This session focuses on sociological, anthropological, psychological approaches.
4. RUINS HOW? — looks at the actual processes of ruination, the subsequent functioning of ruins and the diverse methods of their documentation, technologies of their stabilization and their presentation to the public.