Heritage as boundary object
The troubling potential of the Secretariat in Yangon, Myanmar
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 5701263 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Jayde Lin Roberts (0000-0001-5287-658X, UNSW Sydney, corresponding author), Felix Girke (0000-0003-4663-2700, Lake Constance Arts and Sciences Association, Konstanz, Germany) |
| Year | 2024 |
| Volume | 30 |
| Issue | 3 |
| Pages | 365-381 |
| Publication date | 2024-03-03 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | International Journal of Heritage Studies (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 1352-7258 • E-ISSN: 1470-3610 |
| Publisher | Informa UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1080/13527258.2024.2303127 |
| OpenAlex | W4390841656 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 1 |
| References cited | 16 |
In Yangon, Myanmar, urban heritage has been deployed to mean material objects capable of both recalling history and producing a better future. This article examines the ‘heritagisation’ of the Secretariat during the so-called ‘transition’, even as ‘transition’ and ‘heritagisation’ were intertwined ideas and discursive tactics that capitalised on the temporary retreat of military autocracy. We use the term ‘heritagisation’ to indicate a process wherein something comes to be quite commonsensically considered as ‘heritage’ and in which actors and stakeholders disavow being the driving force behind this process. Heritagisation, for us, differs from heritage-making in that the former excludes accountability. It is predicated on the eventual heritage status of a place, object or practice appearing as obvious, naturally emergent, and seemingly indisputable rather than constructed by invested actors. This process of claiming significance effectively turned heritage into a ‘boundary object’ that enabled Myanmar’s cultural elites and international stakeholders to not only reframe colonial architecture as ‘heritage’ but also imagine an alternative future wherein the actions of coercive governments – both British colonial and Myanmar military – could be reconciled with the idea of a new democratic nation, made visible by a revitalised colonial cityscape
Aesthetics · Autocracy · Boundary object · Cityscape · Cognitive reframing · Colonialism · Cultural heritage · Democracy · Environmental ethics · Negotiation · Political economy · Political science · Politics · Social science · Sociology · Visual arts · Asian Geopolitics and Ethnography · Cambodian History and Society · Cultural Heritage Management and Preservation · Law
Demystifying Myanmar’s Transition and Political Crisis
Uses of Heritage
The Political Legacy of Aung San
Power, cultural nationalism, and postcolonial public architecture
Institutional Ecology, `Translations' and Boundary Objects
Indian Summer
Indian Summer
An Anthropological Toolkit
Clarifying the critical in critical heritage studies
The Yangon Court Buildings
Interrogating Myanmar s Transition from a Post-coup Vantage Point
Multiple nostalgias
| Unique citing works | 1 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 1 |
| Citation span | 2025 - 2025 (1) |
| Citation velocity | recent |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 1 |