trying again, not sure if that attachment was posted. So details of conference below


Heritage in Asia: Converging Forces and Conflicting Values 

An International Conference, 08-10th January 2009

Asia Research Institute, National University of Singapore. 

Abstract Deadline: 01 September 2008

Rapid economic and social change across Asia today means the region’s heritage is at once under 
threat and undergoing a revival as never before. Expanding infrastructures, increasing incomes, 
liberalizing economies and the lowering of borders, both physical and political, are all converging 
as powerful forces transforming Asia’s social, cultural and physical landscapes. But as the region’s 
societies look forward, there are competing forces that ensure they re-visit the past and the 
inherited. In recent years the idea of ‘heritage’ – both natural and cultural – has come to the fore 
across Asia, driven by a language of identity, tradition, revival, and sustainability. For some, 
heritage has become an effective means for protecting those landscapes, rituals, artifacts or 
traditional values endangered by rapid socio-economic change. For others, it has emerged as a 
valuable resource for achieving wider goals such as poverty alleviation, the legitimization of 
narratives of place and past, nation building or the cultural profiling of citizens. And yet for 
others, heritage protection is an obstacle inhibiting progress, national unification, or the shedding 
of unwanted memories. 

In a region of immensely uneven change - such that the pre-/industrial and post-industrial all 
co-exist to create simultaneous presents – major analytical challenges arise from the need to 
preserve, safeguard and restore in contexts where aspirations for modernization and development 
are powerful and legitimate forces. To date however, much of the analysis of heritage in Asia has 
relied upon inherited or borrowed conceptions, and assumptions about what should be valued and 
privileged. The legacies of colonialism, state-centric agendas, social inequality, and the uneasy 
management of pluralist populations all conspire to stifle open and innovative discussion. There is 
little doubt that over the coming decade the contestations surrounding heritage in Asia will 
continue to intensify, whereby converging forces and conflicting values are the norm.

Hosted in Singapore, Heritage in Asia: Converging Forces and Conflicting Values examines 
heritage in relation to the broader social, environmental and economic changes occurring across 
Asia today. Moving beyond sector specific analyses, we define heritage in holistic terms and 
include the natural and cultural, the tangible and intangible. We strongly welcome contributions 
which consider the validity of current heritage theory for understanding contemporary Asia, and 
where appropriate, offer new conceptual and analytical directions. We also encourage submissions 
from researchers who offer insights into the connections between heritage and social 
development, urban studies, post-conflict reconstruction, migration/diaspora, trans-national 
capitalism, human rights, or popular culture. The conference provides the interdisciplinary 
platform necessary for making sense of the broader contexts and forces surrounding heritage in 
Asia today; and, in so doing, offers an innovative look at the rapid and complex socio-cultural 
changes now occurring across the region.

Confirmed Keynote Speakers:

Professor William Logan, UNESCO Chair and Director of Cultural Heritage Centre for Asia-Pacific, 
Deakin University. 
Dr. Nobuko Inaba

, Professor of World Heritage Studies Program
, University of Tsukuba


Proposed Themes:

Heritage in Cosmopolitan Urban Spaces  
Across Asia cities continue to expand at unprecedented rates. Migrating populations, urban 
development and real estate speculation are placing severe pressure on fragile heritage resources.  
Simultaneously though, as cities compete for attention in today’s ‘new economies’ they 
increasingly draw on heritage resources to brand themselves as sites of cultural or historical 
interest. What strategies successfully protect historic sites from the real estate developer? What 
role should the residues of colonialism play in new urban blueprints? How can the social pluralism 
of today’s urban landscapes be reflected and equitably represented in the built environment? 
Potential themes include:
•	Heritage and Performing The Global City
•	Industrial, 20th Century And Independence Heritage
•	Rural, Urban Transitions: Landscapes of the Vernacular and Everyday Heritage

Heritage, Reconstruction and Reconciliation 
In recent years devastating disasters - whether it be from earthquakes, cyclones and tsunamis, or 
from the manmade violence of civil wars and conflict - have led to the destruction of irreplaceable 
architectural and archaeological sites across Asia. But should reconstruction and revival merely be 
about the heritage resources themselves, or can heritage play a wider role in the re-constitution 
of traumatized communities and the reconstruction of livelihoods? Does the language of 
‘commemoration’, so favored by the international community, merely result in the retention of 
localized hostilities or can memorials be used as a tool for reconciliation? Potential themes 
include:
•	Heritage And Post-Conflict/Post Disaster Livelihoods
•	Trauma, Memory And Forgetting
•	Post-Disaster Governance: Capacity Building, Geopolitics And Cultural Diplomacy

Economies of Heritage
Heritage is now widely employed as a ‘resource’ for socio-economic development. The use of 
cultural and natural heritage by governments, non-governmental agencies and institutions like 
the World Bank and Asian Development Bank within a framework of development has yet to 
receive the critical attention it deserves. Is heritage merely being exploited as an economic 
resource by wealthy elites or can it contribute to programs of ‘sustainable development’ that 
foster more equitable economic growth? Can poverty reduction help curb the illicit trafficking of 
cultural antiquities? In what circumstances do initiatives to promote intangible heritage create 
gender specific economies? Potential themes include:
•	Heritage, Tourism And Development 
•	Theorizing the ‘Values’ of Heritage
•	Sustainability, Community, Participation: Concepts or Buzzwords?

Heritage and Diversity
In recent years cultural heritage has emerged as an effective tool for promoting a benign language 
of difference within and across communities. But how successfully do current heritage policies 
reflect the cultural, ethnic and religious diversities of Asia? Do UNESCO conventions on ‘intangible 
heritage’ promote pluralism or are they enabling states to further their agendas of culturally 
profiling their citizens? How will the consumption of the Other or the exotic by a fast growing 
Asian tourism market influence the socio-cultural topography of the region? Potential themes 
include:
•	Ethnicity, Culture And Plurality
•	Heritage, Human Rights, And Indigenity 
•	Empowering The ‘Bearers Of Culture’

Heritage and Modernity
Modernity across Asia has destabilized previously accepted assumptions about ‘authenticity’ and 
the aesthetics of nature and culture. Do heritage frameworks conceived within the cultural 
traditions of ‘Western’ modernity remain valid for Asia today? In a region undergoing rapid 
industrialization, is industrial heritage a relevant category of social commemoration? Does a 
concern for the preservation of cultural heritage inhibit the shedding of the ‘post-colonial’? How 
should natural landscapes best be protected from ‘modern’ intrusions?  What rights should 
communities living inside historic landscapes have towards development and ‘modernization’? Do 
new media technologies present new opportunities for interpreting the past? Potential themes 
include:
•	The Modern/Postmodern: Towards Asian Centric Theories of Heritage  
•	Simultaneous Presents And The Multiple Temporalities Of Place
•	Media, Popular Culture And Heritage 

Submission Details

250-word abstracts and a 5-line biography should be submitted by 1st September 2008. 
Successful applicants will be advised by 15th September and will be required to send in a 
completed paper by 15th December 2008. Some funding will be available for those in the Asian 
Region, post-graduate students, and others unable to fund themselves. Selected papers will be 
put forward for publication in a refereed edited volume. 

Please submit enquiries and/or Abstracts to Dr Patrick Daly ([log in to unmask]) or Dr Tim Winter 
([log in to unmask]).

Further Details and Submission Form Available at:
http://www.ari.nus.edu.sg/events_categorydetails.asp?categoryid=6&eventid=814