There is a great deal of varied terminology used to refer to cultural heritage, and this chapter explores how definitions of these terms translate into practice the importance of cultural heritage to communities that care about it. At times the UK’s system of law and non-law instruments can lead to a fragmented approach to caring for cultural heritage. In addition, there is a body of jurisprudence where a cultural heritage object, place or practice is at the centre of the dispute, but where general legal principles (rather than specialist cultural heritage laws) are applicable; it is the way in which the judges in these cases construct notions of cultural heritage which present an opportunity to fully appreciate the way in which the UK, as a community, imagines cultural heritage. Concepts such as value, significance, interest, importance, uniqueness and value all demonstrate the recognition of the varied ways in which communities in the UK care about cultural heritage. Although the importance of cultural heritage to a community’s identity is frequently cited, this concept is rarely, if ever, translated into legal or non-legal instruments in the UK. This chapter explores how the relationships between different communities and cultural heritage have been translated into the various nested practices of care.

Local awareness and cultural value of threatened species are regarded as integral components of conservation programmes, but pro-environmental attitudes do not necessarily prevent negative human interactions with threatened species. The history of cultural attitudes towards gibbons in China provides an important case study about long-term conservation effectiveness of positive biodiversity values. Animals readily identifiable as gibbons are frequently recorded in Chinese culture from the Zhou Dynasty onward. Gibbons were interpreted as symbols of the supernatural and celebrated in Chinese literature and art. They were also regarded as positive moral exemplars embodying virtuous filial Confucian values, and were equated with the concept of junzi, a noble person who strives after virtue and inspires by example. However, positive cultural associations had little effect in preventing the historical loss of gibbon populations across nearly all of China. Historical records also document exploitation of gibbons for medicinal and other uses, and gibbon declines likely reflect historical conflict with economic demands for local subsistence in marginalised low-income communities. Positive cultural values may therefore be insufficient to prevent species losses if they are outweighed by economic pressures, and awareness may not contribute to positive behavioural change if it does not address drivers of negative human–wildlife interactions.

Histories of dissolving high/low culture divides inform Katalin Orbán’s discussion of contemporary graphic fiction, as she posits the critical and popular emergence of long-form, verbal-visual works that push narrative conventions in new directions, such as spatial-temporal experiments (e.g., by Chris Ware and Richard McGuire), the use of visual metaphors and other conventionally linguistic literary devices, and genre blurring distinctive to the drawn medium.