World Heritage and Urban Politics in Melaka, Malaysia

A Cityscape Below the Winds
Erscheinungsjahr 2021
ISBN: 978-94-6372-502-6
Verlag: Amsterdam University Press

Buch, Englisch, 306 Seiten, Format (B × H): 156 mm x 234 mm, Gewicht: 19 g

Reihe: Amsterdam University Press

Already celebrated as a busy entrepôt and the most glorious of the Malay kingdoms of the past, Melaka has been on the UNESCO World Heritage List (together with George Town) since 2008 on the strength of its multi-ethnic and multi-religious urban fabric. Yet, contrary to the expectations of heritage experts and aficionados, the global mission of safeguarding cultural heritages has become a tumultuous issue on the ground.

In World Heritage and Urban Politics in Melaka, Malaysia: A Cityscape below the Winds how the World Heritage 'label' has been, and continue to be used by different actors – such as international organizations, nation states, and society at large – to generate new economic revenues as well as to attract tourists and investments for large-scale real estate development projects is analyzed, revealing the complex and often contradictory stories behind heritage designations in urban milieus.

Autoren/Hrsg.

de Giosa, Pierpaolo

Fachgebiete

• Sozialwissenschaften Politikwissenschaft Regierungspolitik Kultur-, Wissenschafts- & Technologiepolitik
• Interdisziplinäres Wissenschaften Wissenschaft und Gesellschaft | Kulturwissenschaften Kulturpolitik, Kulturmanagement
• Geowissenschaften Geographie | Raumplanung Regional- & Raumplanung Stadtplanung, Kommunale Planung
• Geisteswissenschaften Geschichtswissenschaft Weltgeschichte & Geschichte einzelner Länder und Gebietsräume Geschichte einzelner Länder Asiatische Geschichte

Inhaltsverzeichnis

Abbreviations

Acknowledgements

Starter: Into a World Heritage City

1 A Cityscape Below the Winds

World Heritage on the Ground

On Melaka

Fieldwork in and Beyond Melaka

Outline of the Chapters

2 The Heritage Affairs: Mouse-Deer, White Elephants, and Watchdogs

Antiquities: The Beginning

Museumification and Replication

Projects of a Developmentalist State

'Where There is Sugar, There Are Ants!'

Restructuring National Heritage

Society and the Heritage Affairs

A Multilayered Heritage Haze

3 UNESCO and the City

Tentative Steps: World Heritage Ambitions

The Hybrid State of Nomination

The State Party of Inscription

The Negeri of Conservation

Learning in the World Heritage Arena

4 Melakan Row Houses from the Ground Up

Row Houses of Old Melaka: A Background

Forsaken Buildings: The Post-war Period

Revaluation: From RUMAH Kedai to Rumah KEDAI

Housing Heritage: Some Approaches to Conservation

Façadomy of Private World Heritage Properties

The Malleability of Conservation Rules

What State of Conservation for the Row Houses?

5 Divide and Brand: Public Space, Politics, and Tourism

'To Visit Historic Melaka Means to Visit Malaysia'

Branding Streets in the Consociational Way

Jonker Street and Walk

A Walk for Cari Makan

'We Don't Need a Harmony Street, We Are the City of Harmony!'

A Political Tsunami in Jonker Street

Politicized Heritage

6 A Melakan Ancestral Village Beyond World Heritage

The Chetti Community: A Background

The Properties of the Ancestors

The Making of a Kampung Warisan

'We Are Sitting on a Gold Mine!'

The Kampungscape and The High-rise

'See You on the Thirteenth Floor!'

What World Heritage Thresholds Do

7 Epilogue of a Blessing and a Curse

Ethnographies of World Heritage Cities

A Transnational Mis(s-)Understanding

Topographies of World Heritage Exclusions

Postscript: Inheriting the Cityscape in the Age of Hope?

Bibliography

Index

Über Autor(innen)

de Giosa, Pierpaolo
Pierpaolo De Giosa is a social anthropologist and former member of the research group ‘The Global Political Economy of Cultural Heritage’ at the Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropology. His research interests lie at the intersection of urban studies and critical heritage studies.