"Ruination": Conflicting Values at a Potential World Heritage Site in Thailand

Ironbridge International Institute for Cultural Heritage Visiting Lecture Series

Conflict or at least consternation may result when a state heritage agency seeks to impose its view of site value and site management on communities living amidst or in proximity to ancient monuments. Indeed, communities may manifest a quite different sense of value, ascribing this sentiment to other features on the town landscape with which and around which they construct meaningful everyday life. In this talk Professor Silverman addresses these issues by considering a Thai community's concerns about the impending World Heritage List inscription of the Khmer temple in the middle of their town. She situates her discussion in current approaches to expert knowledge, counter-heritage, economic development, sustainable tourism and community rights.  

Helaine Silverman is Professor in the Department of Anthropology at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. She holds additional appointments in the Department of Landscape Architecture, Program in Art History, Department of Sport, Recreation and Tourism, and the Campus Honors Program. She is interested in the production of national and local identities around appropriations and representations of the past as these intersect with cultural memory, tourism, globalization, urbanism and built environment, and nation branding. She recently finished a project on "the new Inca city of Cuzco, Peru" and has conducted a comparative project in Thailand. She is editor of Left Coast Press's book series called "Heritage, Tourism and Community" and co-editor of ICAHM's book series called "Multidisciplinary Perspectives on Archaeological Heritage Management." Dr. Silverman is an International Member of the International Council on Monuments and Sites-ICOMOS, an Expert Member of the ICOMOS-International Committee on Archaeological Heritage Management (ICAHM) and the ICOMOS-International Cultural Tourism Committee.