Concrete Memories and Sensory Pasts: Everyday Heritage and the Politics of Nationhood

This paper interrogates how Singapore's everyday heritage has been framed through embodied and sensory experiences. While buildings and other landmarks have been conserved as heritage icons, this designation also includes particular routes known as heritage trails. Buildings and trails by thems...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:	Pacific affairs 2017-06, Vol.90 (2), p.275-295
Main Author:	Low, Kelvin E.Y.
Format:	Article
Language:	eng
Subjects:	Actor-Network Theory Archaeology Architecture Brochures Concrete Concrete Memories Conservation Consumption Cultural heritage Everyday Heritage Familiarity Heritage Trails Heritagization Historic sites Historic trails Landmarks Meaning Memories Memory Nation states Nationalism Networks Ownership Packaging Political aspects Politics Power Production Protection and preservation Senses Sensory Remembering Singapore Singapore history Social aspects Statehood Symbolism Tourism
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Summary:	This paper interrogates how Singapore's everyday heritage has been framed through embodied and sensory experiences. While buildings and other landmarks have been conserved as heritage icons, this designation also includes particular routes known as heritage trails. Buildings and trails by themselves are not invested with symbolic meaning; it is the processes of heritage packaging that consign particular landmarks and sites with a heritage purpose. By employing the notion of "concrete memories," I argue that heritage landmarks and trails form a site through which the nation's history is selectively interpreted, negotiated, and experienced by different actants. Concrete memories comprise three key features: familiarity, sensory remembering, and ownership. The discussion of concrete memories is undergirded by broad methodological principles of actor-network theory. The intention is to call attention to embodied tourism in heritage tourism studies while at the same time addressing the production and consumption of heritage and power relations through heritage networks.
ISSN:	0030-851X 1715-3379 0030-851X