The Politics of Memory

Who decides which stories about a city are remembered? How do interpretations of the past shape a city's present and future? Using local, national and international perspectives on the meanings and uses of heritage cities, The Politics of Memory: Urban Cultural Heritage in Brazil explores how a site can turn into a mummification of the past, lifelessly displaying long-gone splendour, or a living, breathing treasure offering dynamic cultural and educational opportunities. This book presents multiple and competing views, needs and desires amongst the different people who use a city, alongside notions of power, national identity, race and class in heritage settings. Discussing the case of UNESCO World Heritage town Ouro Preto in Brazil, Andreza Aruska de Souza Santos asks how and why democratic participation in heritage fails or succeeds, and how preserved historic cities interpret, resist, and consent to the functions and meanings that they have inherited and that they reinvent for themselves.