Heritage, the power of the past, and the politics of (Mis)Recognition
Abstract
Heritage sites and places are often mobilized to represent a group's identity and sense of place and belonging. This paper will illustrate how heritage and museum visiting, as a leisure activity, facilitates or impedes recognition and redistribution in direct and indirect ways. Drawing on extensive qualitative interviews with visitors to 45 heritage sites and museums in the USA, Australia, and England, the paper demonstrates the importance of emotions in mundane struggles over recognition and misrecognition. How emotions uphold or challenge investments in heritage narratives are examined. The paper argues that heritage and heritage-making is a valuable focus of analysis that reveals the nuances of how people sustain or impede claims for recognition and redistribution.
#ReferencestoExplore
π Graham, B. J., Ashworth, G. J., & Tunbridge, J. E. (2000). A Geography of Heritage: Power, Culture and Economy. Arnold Publishers.
Fraser, N. (1995). "From Redistribution to Recognition? Dilemmas of Justice in a βPostsocialistβ Age." New Left Review, 212(July), 68β93.
π Smith, L. (2021). Emotional Heritage: visitor Engagement at Museums and Heritage Sites. Routledge.
My Summary
Drawing from a mixed method study of qualitative interviews (n. 4,502) with visitors at 45 heritage sites and museums in three countries (USA, Australia and England), Smith explores the role of emotion/affect in the challenging or reinforcing certain groups' recognition or misrecognition in heritage and heritage practice. Through an examination of visitors' affective responses to heritage, Smith illustrates the important role that emotions play and opens the field anew to critical engagement.