There was a suggestion earlier (from whom I cannot remember) that we consider the criteria for Serial sites. No one has picked this up but a lot of the Top 50 missing suggestions have featured ever lengthening "serial site" lists.
Am I alone in not seeing merit in this?
Does anyone know the UNESCO policy documents which discuss this matter?
I would have thought that a serial site needs to be pretty directly linked rather than just being a list of similar sites. At some level or another all "similar" sites can be linked to the same imperatives which led to their creation. So, to use my favourite example, all Gothic cathedrals could be a serial site representing that Architectural style and the society/beliefs/technology which developed it - merely to suggest it I think shows that the reasoning would be pretty thin.
But don't all historic "fun fairs" (or more widely "Mass Holiday Resorts") reflect the same social developments, level of technology etc?
Bringing a lot of similar sites together has the merit of not having to decide between their respective merits and may create a breadth of coverage which demonstrates the overall movement more clearly but i think it is a bit too easy and in any case is not the way the "system works".
In another world it might be better if UNESCO agreed that historic mass holiday resorts could have "Universal Value" and opened the way for all candidates to "apply" if their preserved remains and management regimes were appropriate. The focus of World Heritage would move to the "subject" rather than to the "site". This CAN be done, as the series of documents by IUCN/ICOMOS on "Filling the Gaps" shows - in effect a list of "subjects" has been created and a process to add new subjects could be developed (eg using a recent suggestion - Missile sites!!??)
But, as my earlier post on this argued,
http://www.worldheritagesite.org/forums/index.php?action=vthread&forum=5&topic=100&pa ge=0#msg396at the moment UNESCO is pursuing a policy of mixing "the Best of the Best" with "Representative" sites. I think Blackpool would probably argue on the basis of the former but should easily get in on the latter if it gets its "Inscription Act" together, is not trumped by somewhere which is quicker off the mark and, of course, can convince ICOMOS/WHC that "Mass Holiday Resorts" are a worthwhile WHS subject!