Conflict in Cities Briefing Paper 8 - The Politics of Heritage (original) (raw)

WORLD HERITAGE VS LOCAL COMMUNITY. IDENTIFYING THE SOURCES OF CONFLICTS.

The presented work is an essay rather than a scientific dissertation. The author wants to put an impact on the source of conflicts regarding the complex subject of heritage management and conservation in comparison with the local needs and the given context. The paper attempts to show the role of local communities and their cooperation with authorities as well as the effects of such cooperation. The area of research comprises the problems arising in the field of implementing external rules on the local field, challenges appearing regarding the needs of local communities and the efforts of official authorities trying to implement the principles of the conventions. The problems arise when local communities display the lack of understanding and do not share the common idea of heritage conservation. This is caused mainly by the decreasing possibilities of comfortable life. The author tries to identify the main and wrongful approaches as ‘Gone with the Wind’, ‘The Prince and The Pauper’, ‘Heart of Darkness’ or ‘Scarlet letter’. The impact will be put to explain what are the areas where a mutual misunderstanding arise and why all parts to the problem present different points of view. What creates a value? Is it an heritage object or maybe the other values need a stronger protection? When the general duty and the need to protect the heritage is regarded as a controversy and when it is considered as a value within a given community? The international public interest in heritage protection is often regarded as an attempt to diminish the sovereign power of the community and provokes severe controversies and tensions. The major problem envisaged today seems to be the massive and increasing urbanisation and destroying the vestiges of still existing traditional cultures, whether we consider century urban post-industrial districts of Upper Silesia in Poland, the medieval cities in Western Europe, the traditional nomad Masaya villages in Kenya or the remains of vanished cultures in various regions of Asia. The preferred platform of cooperation between the parts to the conflict includes the divergent needs, beliefs and practices of communities and the possible fields of reconciling the abovementioned. The chosen examples of the best practices in range of mutual cooperation will be underlined. KEY WORDS: world heritage, communities, conservation, cooperation, conflict of values

Heritage Preservation as Strategy for Recomposing Conflict Territories

Journal of Contemporary Urban Affairs, 2021

Heritage admits diverse readings depending on different territorial spaces, contexts, and knowledge fields. The relation between Heritage and the social contexts is one of these knowledge areas. But Heritage accepts a dual perception as a cultural reflection. It may be considered either as the origins of the conflicts or the engine for recomposing disrupted territories. The paper proposes a reflection on the topics related to conflict territories and the roles currently played by Cultural Heritage. The recomposition of conflict territories is based on a continuous intercultural approach with important contributions from human rights, genders equality, intercultural dialogue perspectives and the fact of taking heritage as a territorial stabilization factor. The paper presents specific practical cases in the Eastern Mediterranean region where actions on Heritage religious elements collide with the national sovereign of the respective current countries. A comparative study among these different actions proves that the initial clashes can be progressively transformed into strategies able to become the future guideline for the resolution of heritage regional conflicts. These conflicts reflect two discourses: political (with strong links between national identity and religion) and scientific (with a clash between static concept and dynamic vision) where objects interact with the visitors.

The World Heritage vs local community: identifying the sources of conflicts

2015

The presented work is an essay rather than a scientific dissertation. The author wants to put an impact on the source of conflicts regarding the complex subject of heritage management and conservation in comparison with the local needs and the given context. The paper attempts to show the role of local communities and their cooperation with authorities as well as the effects of such cooperation. The area of research comprises the problems arising in the field of implementing external rules on the local field, challenges appearing regarding the needs of local communities and the efforts of official authorities trying to implement the principles of the conventions. The problems arise when local communities display the lack of understanding and do not share the common idea of heritage conservation. This is caused mainly by the decreasing possibilities of comfortable life. The author tries to identify the main and wrongful approaches as ‘Gone with the Wind’, ‘The Prince and The Pauper’,...

Cultural Heritage Conflict and the Politics of Archaeological Authority

2006

enerally it is acknowledged that conflict is axiomatic in any contemporary system of heritage (or cultural) resource management. 1 Tunbridge and Ashworth 2 argue that dissonance ('a discordance or a lack of agreement and consistency') is 'intrinsic' to heritage, since 'selection is inevitable' and 'any creation of heritage from the past disinherits someone [else] completely or partially, actively or potentially'. In this process there may be conflict between stakeholders who feel alienated from the physical reference points of their own past, and those decision-makers who would modify or appropriate that past. In overview, the selection pressures that are at the core of cultural heritage conflicts are complex and wide-ranging. Disagreement spans differences over the treatment and care of sites through to the targeted destruction of cultural property and associated customary communities. 3 Affected communities may contest decisions that seem to dismiss their own heritage sites and associated narratives and practices. At the extreme end of the scale, these differences may lead to sectarian violence and the destruction of cultural property. Conflict can also occur between cultural heritage practitioners themselves over how, and even whether, to research the contested past. 4 The appeal of the material archaeological record is often enhanced where the past is referenced in postcolonial or nationalist conflicts. In these disputes, archaeologists may be found as expert witnesses in legal proceedings (for example, Sutton's article in this volume) or as public advocates for or against communities with customary or other cultural heritage associations. 5 Newly discovered archaeological features and artifacts may be given considerable if tendentious weight or be subject to critical scrutiny and dismissal. This is powerfully illustrated in the political uses of the archaeological record that have characterized debate over the 1992 destruction of the Babri mosque at Ayodhya in the northern Indian state of Uttar Pradesh. 6 Conflict may even be sustained where sectarian groups agree superficially about protecting the same archaeological heritage. For example, Catholic and Protestant communities of the G

Conflict and Culture - understanding Threats to Heritage

Conflict and Culture, 2018

The last years have shown deliberate and dramatic destruction of World Heritage monuments as part of armed conflicts. However, also political conflicts and ignorance are serious threats to heritage. This is demonstrated by a number of cases from the Middle East and Europe presented in this volume by a joint team of scholars from European research institutions.