When we look at the future of heritage we should take into account where we come from first. The Second World War marked the end of Europe’s political, economic and cultural dominance in the world. Ever since, the world has been confronted with major global changes that today start to effect also local conditions at ever deeper levels.

During the last decades or two the point of economic gravity has clearly shifted towards Asia in general and towards China and India in particular. As a consequence, global economy is not only affected by decisions taken in those countries, attitudes towards oneself and the other are fundamentally shifting as well. That is to say, the intellectual frame of reference will soon no longer be exclusively determined by the West. In today’s and tomorrow’s world, knowledge about how to go about in a world marked by cultural differences will become of paramount importance.

This is where heritage will start playing a new and important role. Heritage not only relates a community to its past, it also determines a community’s relationship towards the other. Therefore, heritage helps in reflecting about who we are and about how we should go about in a person to person relationship within the context of a globalised world, a relationship that should be satisfying for all the partners involved. Obviously, this is not always the case today.