Uses of Heritage

Introduction

Published in 2006 by Routledge, the book Uses of Heritage argues that there is no such thing as heritage. The book aims to offer a retheorization of heritage that identifies heritage as a cultural process or performance that is framed by a range of discourses, the most conspicuous one being what the book terms the “Authorized Heritage Discourse,” or AHD. The book de-privileges the idea of heritage as material, as a “thing,” and, drawing on the work of the historian Raphael Samuel (1994), explores the idea that heritage “things” are “theaters of memory,” where the past and present are negotiated through the performances of heritage management, preservation, and visiting. Heritage is a process of remembering and meaning making, in which understandings of both the past and present are continually negotiated by the performance of identifying, managing, and visiting heritage places or participating in intangible heritage events. All heritage is thus intangible, because...