Although attacks on cultural property have caused international outcry, our understanding of this phenomenon is still limited. In particular, little research has been directed towards exploring the motivations for such attacks. Therefore, we ask: What are the motives for attacking sites, buildings or objects representing cultural heritage? By combining insights from peace and conflict research with findings from heritage studies we present a typology of motivations for attacking cultural property. We identify four, not mutually exclusive, broad groups of motives: (i) attacks related to conflict goals, in which cultural property is targeted because it is connected to the issue the warring parties are fighting over (ii), military-strategic attacks, in which the main motivation is to win tactical advantages in the conflict (iii), signalling attacks, in which cultural property is targeted as a low-risk target that signals the commitment of the aggressor, and (iv) economic incentives where cultural property provides funding for warring parties. Our typology offers a theoretical structure for research about why, when, and by whom, cultural property is targeted. This is not only likely to provide academic benefits, but also to contribute to the development of more effective tools for the protection of cultural property during armed conflict.

Despite that large investments have been made by the European Union in restoring and preserving heritage damaged after the Kosovo War 1998–99, there have been no previous attempts to gain more in-depth knowledge about the implementation and success of the interventions. Organisations involved in funding and facilitating architectural interventions in post-conflict zones may have differing aims and agendas that influence selection and methods, and ultimately the results. This paper aims to shed light on a pioneering project carried out on damaged kullas, massive masonry towers connected to farmsteads, in Kosovo 2001–02. Kullas were systematically attacked and burned during the conflict. The methodology is based on interviews with involved people and on documentation that is publically available, since it is crucial to uncover the aims and agendas of involved actors if one wishes to understand how and why decisions were made. In the end, what was deemed most important in the process was not the reconstruction in itself, but rather the development of craftsmen's skills and the need to create a dialogue on the values of Kosovo heritage. The paper shows how the reconstruction of built heritage can facilitate processes of dialogue in conflict areas.

This chapter explores the roles that public monuments as tools for heritage-making have played in mediating the ethnic division of Mitrovica, Kosovo, since the end of 1999. Focusing on the area around the Ibar River Bridge, which is the city’s major fault line, it examines the ways in which ethnic heritage has been revived, interpreted and represented, both physically and semantically, to frame the border between the northern (Serbian) and southern (Albanian) parts of the city and shape the relations between the ethnic communities inhabiting them. The argument is that Mitrovica’s post-war socio-spatial division is fostered by selective, one-sided and opposing versions of heritage-making embedded in the post-war monuments, which serve to mark the ethnic power of territories, produce ethnically exclusive Serbian and Albanian place identities and deny the ethnic ‘Others’.

The paper analyses the ‘energy savings plan for existing buildings’ (EBB) introduced in Sweden after the first oil crisis of 1973, and how effects of policies on the built heritage were perceived and communicated to a wider public. A conflict between conservation aims and energy efficiency was constructed for the first time in Sweden. The programme was a huge investment made by the government to reduce the import of oil. At first, little consideration was taken to the fact that heritage values might be at risk when giving property owners financial incentives to retrofit their houses. Soon increasing knowledge about the existing building stock showed that older houses were not necessarily energy inefficient. An information campaign launched by protagonists of building conservation encouraged property owners to direct measures to the interiors of buildings, thus saving the exterior character of not just single buildings but also complete neighbourhoods. Towards the end of EBB, the field of conservation had become a more articulated voice when it came to influencing measures aiming at increased energy efficiency. Finally, the paper discusses how values constituted in the 1970s affect policy and practice today.

The paper investigates the relationship between the Swedish development agency Sida and Cultural Heritage without Borders (CHwB), a facilitating organisation in the field of cultural heritage in Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) following the Bosnia War. From 1995 to 2008 CHwB was the only NGO in BiH working to preserve cultural heritage, and was almost exclusively funded by Sida. From having been an organisation focusing on the restoration of historic monuments, CHwB transformed into becoming an NGO facilitating social and economic development. The paper suggests that CHwB gradually changed from having a very particular position of working with the preservation of an ethnically diverse cultural heritage with the aim of promoting reconciliation, to one where it needed to focus on reconstruction and its implications for economic development. By analysing a large number of key documents using Norman Fairclough’s critical discourse analysis this change is interpreted in relation to changes taking place within the landscape of international aid and post-conflict recovery.

Purpose: Sweden, like other countries, has set ambitious national targets for both energy efficiency and conservation of heritage values in the built environment. However, how these policies are implemented on a local level and how they affect each other is not known. This study aims to argue that extensive energy-saving policies can have unintentional impacts not just on the built environment but also on conservation practice.Design/methodology/approach: By using a longitudinal approach, the aim is to investigate the possibilities of conserving the built environment when policies for increased energy efficiency are implemented in existing urban areas. The methodology used is qualitative, applying a combination of study of public records, policy documents, interviews with public officials and ocular investigation of buildings in three areas located in two different municipalities.Findings: The study suggests that extensive refurbishments not only have effects on the character of an area, but in extension, affect how urban planners and local authorities approach the development in the same area. Urban areas affected by extensive retrofits in the past seem to be managed in less detail, leaving existing policy measures on both energy and heritage untapped.Research limitations/implications: This is a study concerning two Swedish municipalities. Furthermore, it is limited to one specific policy measure, energy-saving subsidies provided in the 1970s and 1980s. The generalisability of the findings may, therefore, be limited. Despite this, the findings provide an important indication of the relationship between energy-saving policies in the past and urban planning practice of existing urban areas today, as well as the importance of alignment between policy-making and implementation.Practical implications: Policy instruments for the building stock and the practice of conservation planning have not worked well together. Due to local practice, energy subsidies provided in the 1970s and 1980s still today have a negative effect on both heritage conservation and energy efficiency in existing areas.Social implications: There is a discrepancy between expectations and outcome of policy measures. National decision-makers overestimate the possibilities to control the development on a local level, for both energy efficiency and heritage values. By examining an innovative set of sources, acknowledging long-term effects and entanglements of policies and practice, this study contributes to a better understanding of the complexity of different values in the built environment.Originality/value: By comparing the share of approved applications, as well as completed energy retrofits, this study demonstrates that the effects of the national energy subsidy policy differed significantly between urban areas. Areas with a high degree of approved subsidies also had a high degree of retrofits, suggesting that the policy had intended effects. In these areas, the number of retrofits were also significantly higher than the number of subsidies. This was not the case where energy subsidies were fewer, which indicates that energy retrofits are performative, meaning that they accelerate further retrofits in the same area.