Enterprise and Heritage

Enterprise and Heritage explores two interrelated phenomena which have come to the forefront of the social and cultural life of many western countries in recent years, and which look set to hold a continuing influence in the 1990s and beyond. The rise of the radical right in western politics has been expressed in the creation of a market society in Britain. Enterprise' became the term most often advanced for the official encouragement of the values of this society, where competitive private ownership was the model for both industrial and domestic life. For the individual, identity was formed through the exercise of choice in the marketplace, and the right to buy' was celebrated as the guarantee of individual freedom. At the same time, the widespread usage of the idea heritage' signalled an invocation of the values and achievements of a mythical and nostalgia-tinged past. In the new leisure world of heritage culture, "Great Britain PLC" now markets its imperial and industrial history as an inheritance available to all for the price of a ticket. Topics discussed include Hollywood films of the Wall Street' genre; the re-development of the London Docklands and of Liverpool's Albert Dock, the retail revolution and the pleasures and pitfalls of high street shopping from Habitat to Laura Ashley.