Everyday World Heritage

Abstract

The World Heritage Convention is currently implemented in over 1,000 cultural, natural and mixed heritage sites around the world including Australia. Motivations for World Heritage nomination are varied and though these reasons often affect the way World Heritage is implemented, there is little contemporary, ethnographic, site-specific research on what happens at sites after World Heritage inscription.

Acknowledging traditional sociology’s environmental ‘blind spot’ this thesis investigates the effects of ‘natural’ World Heritage implementation through practicing a ‘sociology of associations’. By using the analytical tools of Actor-network theory (ANT) it traces these associations between actors in the Greater Blue Mountains World Heritage Area; a ‘natural’ World Heritage site in Australia. This thesis exposes the effects of World Heritage implementation by ‘following the actors’, human and non-human, and gathering empirical evidence through interviews, observations and documentary analysis. The ‘post-humanist’ tenets of ANT allow the researcher to shift the locus of power and analytical primacy to reimagine the ordering of actors in the World Heritage area.

World Heritage is reimagined not as a fixed concept or homogeneous unit of analysis but as a heterogeneous assemblage of actors whose narratives constitute a World Heritage network. The three narratives that emerged in this research, of disengagement, lost opportunities and business as usual, provide a powerful insight into the effects of World Heritage implementation and the associations and ordering of actors that negotiate and configure a specific translation of World Heritage.

These three narratives ‘speak’ for World Heritage in specific and unexpected ways. The narrative of disengagement suggests that World Heritage is overshadowed by more pressing life concerns. The narrative of lost opportunities suggests that hope for the potential of World Heritage implementation has turned into disappointment or frustration. The narrative of business as usual suggests that implementation is strongly influenced by corporate exigencies, and shrinking resources.

These narratives reveal the process by which World Heritage is translated from inscription to implementation and from concept to practice. This translation of World Heritage through the ‘everyday’ associations of human and non-human actors provides rare insights into how World Heritage is conceptualised and implemented in Australia. More broadly, these insights highlight the consequences of communicating World Heritage values. This thesis makes an important contribution to our understanding of how these values are translated and how it can impact World Heritage implementation. Show more