Patrimoine et développement local: Pratiques institutionnelles et pratiques sociales

The institutional practices consider more and more the heritage as a tool for sustainable development. If this change devotes an extension and broadening of the concept of heritage, the social practices does not necessarily fall within the same perspective. In other words,Everyone does not see heritage (a set of material and non-material assets) as part of development, and the transmission of material and non-material assets does not necessarily require for these assests to be considered as a heritage, most often associated, in the social representations, to a greater constraints. The aim of the Figuig city council (an Oasis in the far east of Morocco) is to apply for registration of the Oasis site to the World Heritage of Humanity. On the basis of surveys and participant observations, the research aims at understanding the representations of the Fuguigui’s heritage, and the gaps between the perspectives of local institutions and local populations.