World Heritage and Urban Politics in Melaka, Malaysia. A Cityscape below the Winds

World Heritage and Urban Politics in Melaka, Malaysia: A Cityscape below the Winds analyses how the World Heritage ‘label’ is being used by different actors – such as international organizations, nation states, and society at large – to generate new economic revenues as well as to attract tourists and investment for large-scale real estate development projects. In doing so, it reveals the complex and often contradictory stories behind heritage designations in urban milieus.

The politics of heritages in Melaka, Malaysian historical city par excellence, is explored in this book. Already celebrated as the most glorious of the Malay kingdoms in the past and a busy entrepôt, since 2008, Melaka has been on the UNESCO World Heritage List (together with George Town) on the strength of its multi-ethnic and multi-religious urban fabric. Yet, contrary to the expectations of heritage experts and aficionados, the global mission of safeguarding cultural heritages has become a tumultuous issue on the ground.

In World Heritage and Urban Politics in Melaka, Malaysia: A Cityscape below the Winds how the World Heritage ‘label’ has been, and continue to be used by different actors – such as international organizations, nation states, and society at large – to generate new economic revenues as well as to attract tourists and investments for large-scale real estate development projects is analyzed, revealing the complex and often contradictory stories behind heritage designations in urban milieus.

Pierpaolo De Giosa is a social anthropologist and former member of the research group ‘The Global Political Economy of Cultural Heritage’ at the Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropology. His research interests lie at the intersection of urban studies and critical heritage studies.