The Study of Institutional changes in Cultural Heritage, Handicrafts and Tourism Organization of Iran

Free Market is usually known as an economic school and “the science of economy”, but the extent of its influence exceeds the domain of economy and expands its organizing model to cultural and social areas. In the last three decades, this logic has gradually penetrated into the fields of city and architecture following the dominance of free market approach over Iran Development Plans. These changes in policy and attitudes have turned public urban spaces which have been known as cultural heritage to new fields of market. Thus, the logic of investment and profit making has become the dominant discourse in the field of urban management and intervention. This paper aims to track the discursive development of the field of cultural heritage through institutional changes of Cultural Heritage, Handicrafts and Tourism Organization of Iran. These changes have taken place in the last three decades as a result of the dominance of free market approach over Development Plans and economic management. The turning point of these changes was the merger of two organizations of cultural heritage and tourism in 2003 which brought many changes in the field of conservation of cultural and historical remnants. The expansion of tourism logic to the field of cultural heritage inevitably has led to the dominance of the logic of tourism market over the management and organizing model of historical remnants and also old historical areas. At the end, this paper sought to provide an overall schema of the current situation of institutions relating to cultural heritage under the banner of tourist industry.