IN-PERSON London Heritages. Section B

Abstract

The interdependencies between humans and the non-human world underscore the need for a balanced and sustainable approach to everyday landscape and human-non-human relationships. In Chiang Mai, the cultural capital of Thailand, one way to unpack these relationships and the power dynamics shaping them is to examine heritagization processes. These processes, which include identifying, preserving, and promoting natural-cultural assets, are exercises of power that are never politically neutral. Appropriating across various landscape types and under diverse legislative protections, such as the Thai Heritage Act and the National Park Act, heritagization has been practiced by diverse actors throughout the 21st century. As heritage serves as a catalyst for socio-political growth and regression, cohesion and conflict, heritagization can function as a tool for conservation as well as socio-cultural and environmental development. This paper presents heritagization processes’ outcome which sometimes mobilizes multiple heritage narratives, challenging previously interpreted values, and diversifying the signification and memorialization of places. In Chiang Mai, these outcomes include the erosion and revitalization of the city’s landscape identity and the stimulation and discouragement of peacebuilding and capacity-building projects. By examining Chiang Mai’s landscapes—namely, archaeological ruins, ancient canals, and heritage trees—as sites of contestation and heritage attributes, this study elucidates the socio-cultural issues that arise during and after the heritagization processes. This study contributes to the discussions concerning the contested role and political nature of heritage and heritagization in 21st-century Southeast Asian countries, emphasizing the importance of reading urban landscape experiences in conjunction with the political-ideological function of heritage production.