Using keywords to link World Heritage research and practice: observations from the World Heritage Leadership Heritage Place Lab

PurposeThere is evidence of emerging silos separating research and practices in heritage. Creating spaces where researchers and practitioners collaborate and learn from their exchanges is therefore needed. This premise was the foundation of the pilot phase for the World Heritage Leadership Heritage Place Lab that allowed eight teams from different geocultural contexts to come together to develop research agendas. This paper provides observations about how these agendas relate to key strands in critical heritage research globally. It complements the other papers in this Special Issue that describe the case studies in detail.Design/methodology/approachA keywords approach has been used to identify areas where shared research agendas can advance both heritage practices and academic interest in the field of heritage studies. This was based on the observations made by the author during the pilot phase of the Heritage Place Lab and the research agendas produced by the research-practice teams. The approach is exploratory and experimental, inviting other contributions.FindingsTwenty keywords are identified and explored via both academic literature and the research priorities identified by the research-practice teams that participated in the pilot.Originality/valueA keywords approach is relatively untested in the field of heritage studies. Recognizing that commonly-used terms (or words) have fluid meanings across disciplines and practices potentially opens new dimensions to the dialogue between heritage practitioners and researchers.