Paperback
After Heritage
Critical Perspectives on Heritage from Below
9781839104459 Edward Elgar Publishing
Focusing on the practices and politics of heritage-making at the individual and the local level, this book uses a wide array of international case studies to argue for their potential not only to disrupt but also to complement formal heritage-making in public spaces. Providing a much-needed clarion call to reinsert the individual as well as the transient into more collective heritage processes and practices, this strong contribution to the field of Critical Heritage Studies offers insight into benefits of the ‘heritage from below approach’ for researchers, policy makers and practitioners.
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Critical Acclaim
Contributors
Contents
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Drawing upon international case studies, and building upon Iain J.M. Robertson’s work on ‘heritage from below’, After Heritage sheds critical light on heritage-making and heritagescapes that are, more frequently than not, located in virtual, less conspicuous and more everyday spaces.
The book considers the highly personal, often ephemeral, individual – vis-à-vis collective – experiences of (in)formal ways the past has been folded into contemporary societies. In doing so, it unravels the merits of examining more intimate materializations of heritage not only as a check against, but also complementary to, what Laurajanne Smith refers to as ‘Authorized Heritage Discourses’. It also argues against the tendency to romanticize the fleeting and largely obscured means through which alternative forms of heritage-making are produced, performed and patronized. Ultimately, this book provides a clarion call to reinsert the individual and the transient into collective heritage processes.
Researchers in human and cultural geography, heritage studies and tourism studies will find this strong contribution to the developing field of Critical Heritage Studies an insightful read. Policy makers and heritage practitioners will also develop a deeper understanding of how heritage practices may benefit from the ‘heritage from below’ approach.
The book considers the highly personal, often ephemeral, individual – vis-à-vis collective – experiences of (in)formal ways the past has been folded into contemporary societies. In doing so, it unravels the merits of examining more intimate materializations of heritage not only as a check against, but also complementary to, what Laurajanne Smith refers to as ‘Authorized Heritage Discourses’. It also argues against the tendency to romanticize the fleeting and largely obscured means through which alternative forms of heritage-making are produced, performed and patronized. Ultimately, this book provides a clarion call to reinsert the individual and the transient into collective heritage processes.
Researchers in human and cultural geography, heritage studies and tourism studies will find this strong contribution to the developing field of Critical Heritage Studies an insightful read. Policy makers and heritage practitioners will also develop a deeper understanding of how heritage practices may benefit from the ‘heritage from below’ approach.
Critical Acclaim
‘After Heritage not only offers much needed critical analysis of the heritage-making power and practices of ordinary people, but also productively de-stabilizes the binaries that have long constrained critical memory studies – individual versus collective, intangible versus material, and bottom up versus top down. Its rich array of case studies move us beyond monolithic understandings of how the past is produced, resisted and emplaced within everyday life.’
– Derek H. Alderman, University of Tennessee at Knoxville, US
‘By excavating politics and identities from below, the nine chapters of this book fascinatingly bring back into focus the everyday, mundane and the local; themes and contexts that continue to be too often overlooked by scholars in heritage studies. Moving away from accounts of state politics and world heritage sites, the book identifies why we need to critically examine family memorabilia, Bruce Lee and motorbiking as forms of heritage. After Heritage makes a significant contribution to the debate concerning where critical heritage studies should head in the future through its various nudges for conceptual innovation and its welcome incorporation of examples from different regions.’
– Tim Winter, University of Western Australia
– Derek H. Alderman, University of Tennessee at Knoxville, US
‘By excavating politics and identities from below, the nine chapters of this book fascinatingly bring back into focus the everyday, mundane and the local; themes and contexts that continue to be too often overlooked by scholars in heritage studies. Moving away from accounts of state politics and world heritage sites, the book identifies why we need to critically examine family memorabilia, Bruce Lee and motorbiking as forms of heritage. After Heritage makes a significant contribution to the debate concerning where critical heritage studies should head in the future through its various nudges for conceptual innovation and its welcome incorporation of examples from different regions.’
– Tim Winter, University of Western Australia
Contributors
Contributors: A. Aceska, R. Carter-White, M.R. Cook, D. Drozdzewski, J. Gillen, C. Minca, H. Muzaini, M. Ormond, A.E. Potter, I.J.M. Robertson, J.A. Tyner
Contents
Contents:
1. Rethinking heritage, but ‘from below’
Hamzah Muzaini and Claudio Minca
2. Official memorials, deathscapes, and hidden landscapes of ruin: material legacies of the Cambodian genocide
James A. Tyner
3. Motorbikes as ‘aspirational’ heritage: rethinking past, present and future in Vietnam
Jamie Gillen
4. The Bruce Lee statue in Mostar: ‘heritage from below’ experiments in a divided city
Ana Aceska and Claudio Minca
5. Death camp heritage ‘from below’? Instagram and the (re)mediation of Holocaust heritage
Richard Carter-White
6. Unfinished geographies: women’s roles in shaping Black historical counter narratives
Matthew R. Cook and Amy E. Potter
7. Stolpersteine and memory in the streetscape
Danielle Drozdzewski
8. Adoption, genealogical bewilderment and biological heritage bricolage
Meghann Ormond
Afterword
Iain J. M. Robertson
Index
1. Rethinking heritage, but ‘from below’
Hamzah Muzaini and Claudio Minca
2. Official memorials, deathscapes, and hidden landscapes of ruin: material legacies of the Cambodian genocide
James A. Tyner
3. Motorbikes as ‘aspirational’ heritage: rethinking past, present and future in Vietnam
Jamie Gillen
4. The Bruce Lee statue in Mostar: ‘heritage from below’ experiments in a divided city
Ana Aceska and Claudio Minca
5. Death camp heritage ‘from below’? Instagram and the (re)mediation of Holocaust heritage
Richard Carter-White
6. Unfinished geographies: women’s roles in shaping Black historical counter narratives
Matthew R. Cook and Amy E. Potter
7. Stolpersteine and memory in the streetscape
Danielle Drozdzewski
8. Adoption, genealogical bewilderment and biological heritage bricolage
Meghann Ormond
Afterword
Iain J. M. Robertson
Index
