John Peterson
Walter Benjamin’s three types, the flâneur, the Collector and the Gambler were proposed as observers or players in his Arcades Project for 1920s Paris. They were engaged in a kind of ‘tourism’ that enjoyed the luxury of shopping corridors in the iron-girded structures of the ‘modern’ Paris landscape of that era. It was a transformative time in European history, as is the current decade. World Heritage is at the centre of how we view landscapes and places. The Pandemic of the early 2020s was a powerful moment. Since that moment we still face threats and are forced to find more appropriate ways to appreciate World Heritage, such as homestays, trekking, pilgrimages, and other in-depth encounters. The course of preservation may require us to be more reflective and less invasive. What will be the perspective from AD 2030 as we look back on this decade 100 years after the Arcades?. © 2026 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.
Department of Anthropology, University of San Carlos, Cebu, Philippines; International Committee for Archaeological Heritage Management, Philippines
