@phdthesis{RevillaSanchez2024, author = {Revilla Sanchez, Laura Cristina}, title = {An intersection of heritagisation and securitisation in postcolonial Mexican communities}, doi = {10.26127/BTUOpen-7042}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:kobv:co1-opus4-70426}, school = {BTU Cottbus - Senftenberg}, year = {2024}, abstract = {Heritage in postcolonial settings has many dimensions that require in-depth exploration. This research aims to study critical forms of heritage and security through local perspectives in postcolonial settings in order explore to what extent can heritagisation and securitisation have a link in postcolonial communities. Mexico is filled with a mixture of socio-cultural practices, perceptions, and discourses of community-making from official and unofficial perspectives as part of a postcolonial setting. Yet, in times of insecurity due to rising crime and violence, (in)security perceptions and practices may be intertwined with heritage practices and discourses. This connection requires further analysis in order to understand the potentials layers that heritagisation may arise for community implications as can be with (in)security in Comonfort, San Miguel de Allende, and Celaya in the state of Guanajuato in Mexico. In this research, I aim to advance an understanding of heritagisation in postcolonial settings by showing that critical heritage, as a complex field, requires more research towards other regions and other disciplines by exploring an intersection with critical security studies. The study examines this junction through the methodological approach of collective and comparative case studies with ethnographic approaches, employing several methods such as participant observation, ethnographic interviews, surveys, and problem-centred interviews. Through triangulation of data collection and interpretation based on grounded theory, my inquiry captures participants' perspectives on top-down and bottom-up heritagisation with securitisation conceptions; thus, gathering crucial insights and explaining the socio-cultural linkage between the two fields. The chosen methods offer an understanding into a postcolonial methodology, critical perspective, and constructivist paradigm from the proposed intersection. This dialogue points out to the diverse layers of complexities of heritage-making in regard to community-making connected to security-making. In conclusion, this research prompts in presenting a nexus between heritagisation and securitisation in postcolonial communities relating critical heritage and critical security studies in Mexico, and calls to further explore pluriversality of heritage and security practices related to community implications under postcolonial condition.}, subject = {Postcolonial settings; Postkolonialer Kontext; Heritagisation; Securitisation; Community-making; Critical perspective; Mexico; Heritagisierung; Versicherheitlichung; Gemeinschaftsbildung; Kritische Perspektive; Mexiko; Kulturerbe; Sicherheit; Gemeinschaft; Postkolonialismus}, language = {en} } @phdthesis{Erlewein2015, author = {Erlewein, Shina-Nancy}, title = {Screening Intangible Heritage : media, heritage and representation: the case of Kutiyattam Sanskrit Theatre, India}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:kobv:co1-opus4-35985}, school = {BTU Cottbus - Senftenberg}, year = {2015}, abstract = {This research investigates the role of audio-visual media in the representation of intangible cultural heritage and provides a theoretically and empirically grounded concept of the interrelation of media, ICH and representation. It identifies both the potentials and risks involved in media representation, as well as responding to the question regarding how audio-visual representations can foster the safeguarding of ICH, aiming at its sustained transmission and recreation. The study conceptualizes representation as a process in which meaning is produced and negotiated. It refers to discourse in Social/Cultural Anthropology, Heritage Studies and Cultural Studies, particularly making use of the circuit of culture model, Hall's encoding/decoding model and Assmann's concept of memory. As ICH is culturally contextualized, the analysis focuses on one specific heritage manifestation: the Kutiyattam Sanskrit theatre. It explores in detail Kutiyattam's history, identity, performance practice and transformation, including after UNESCO's proclamation. It analyses the processes and conditions of production, encoding, circulation, reception, utilization and regulation of audio-visual representation and demonstrates the extent to which these dynamic and manifold reciprocal processes influence Kutiyattam practices and practitioners. In the form of a thick description, the study exemplifies that media and modern technologies foster continuity in practice, revitalization, valorization and self-assertion, that they enable education, research, promotion and dissemination of ICH, and contribute to identity construction and the (re)creation of communities. It shows that audio-visual representations - when produced in collaboration with the practicing communities, thereby facilitating culture-specific coding and community use - constitute significant vehicles within safeguarding measures. Differentiating between horizontal and vertical transmission of ICH as well as micro and macro level consumption, the study further identifies numerous challenges involved in the mediatization and digitization of ICH. It addresses issues of access, participation, appropriation and intellectual property and the conflict-ridden processes of homogenization, fragmentation, commercialization and popularization, among others. It argues that rather than being innocent and neutral reflections of cultural practices, audio-visual representations are actively involved in meaning making and knowledge constitution processes and deeply enmeshed in power. It proves that representations shape memory, cultural identity and history and exercise influence on cultural expressions and communities. The study concludes with the provision of general recommendations, giving guidance regarding the utilization of media as well as the production, consumption and regulation of media work, targeting heritage professionals and media professionals alike.}, subject = {Intangible Cultural Heritage; UNESCO; Mediatization and digitization; Audio-visual representation; Kutiyattam Sanskrit theatre; Immaterielles Kulturerbe; Mediatisierung und Digitalisierung; Audio-visuelle Repr{\"a}sentation; Kutiyattam Sanskrit Theater; Kudiyattam; Immaterielles Kulturerbe}, language = {en} } @phdthesis{Ishizawa2014, author = {Ishizawa, Maya}, title = {About the conservation of cultural landscapes: sustainability or unviability? A comparative study on the emergent landscape management in heritage sites in mountain regions: the Andes and the Pyrenees}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:kobv:co1-opus4-30644}, school = {BTU Cottbus - Senftenberg}, year = {2014}, abstract = {Cultural landscapes have become categories of increasing use in the nominations to the World Heritage, because they provide frameworks for the integration of alternative understandings of heritage into the List. Nevertheless, the concept of cultural landscape takes its roots within a Western naturalist ontology. By assuming this ontology the interpretation of heritage sites is based on the division between nature and culture. The lack of a model of protection designed for the integration of all categories of heritage is evident, with the models used following the culture/nature and tangible/intangible divides. In order to study this problem, a comparative approach has been used. Two sites from mountain areas have been selected as case studies. The Ordesa and Monte Perdido National Park in Spain has been part of the transnational mixed cultural and natural heritage property in the World Heritage List Pyrenees/Mont Perdu since 1997, shared with France. The Archaeological Park of Ollantaytambo, neighbor to the Sanctuary of Machu Picchu in Peru, is included in the serial and transnational property Qhapaq {\~N}an/Andean Road System inscribed in the List in 2014. These sites are protected under two different models: the first focused on the conservation of nature and the second on the conservation of the past. Nevertheless, both sites have been nominated as cultural landscapes based on the presence of Intangible Cultural Heritage maintained by agropastoral communities inhabiting them. The focus is to put in question the relevance of the concepts of conservation and sustainability in these contexts and to propose landscape management as an alternative that implies maintenance and at the same time adaptation to change. The methodological design is based on a qualitative approach. The focus is the analysis of the 'emergent landscape management', defined as a self-organized process resulting from the interactions between the most influential actors in landscapes - the state, local communities and visitors -, ultimately leading to synergies between these actors' practices. The results show that, first, the diversity of approaches to the notion of "landscape" entails the lack of precision of the object to be conserved. The definition set in the Operational Guidelines of the 1972 World Heritage Convention presents the concept from different epistemological perspectives. Contrasted with the criteria under which these sites have been justified as World Heritage Cultural Landscapes, an inherent contradiction is evident between the models of protection and the continuity of the way of life of local communities that represent their heritage value. Second, three landscapes have been identified based upon the model of the emergent landscape management: the landscape as a container; the landscape as habitat; and the landscape as picture. Three sets of maps, corresponding with each group of actors portray the results. Nevertheless, the groups and its understandings are not close. Key actors have been found playing roles in different groups. An overlay of the maps shows the potential for common ground connected by the key actors. Finally, even if these sites represent particular cases, they exemplify the need to reflect upon the inherent contradictions of the current conservation system. In order to develop comprehensive strategies for the viability of cultural landscapes alternatives for the continuity and autonomy of local communities need to be reflected upon.}, subject = {Cultural landscapes; Landscape management; World heritage; Intangible cultural heritage; Community involvement; Kulturlandschaften; Landschaftsmanagement; Welterbe; Immaterielles Kulturerbe; Einbezug der Lokalbev{\"o}lkerung; Paisajes culturales; Manejo del Paisaje; Patrimonio Mundial; Patrimonio Cultural Inmaterial; Participaci{\´o}n de la comunidad; Kulturlandschaft; Weltnaturerbe; Kulturerbe; Landschaftsschutz; Umweltbezogenes Management}, language = {en} } @phdthesis{RohdeAbuba2024, author = {Rohde-Abuba, Caterina}, title = {Un/doing Migration : understanding the performativity of migrant identities in care work}, doi = {10.26127/BTUOpen-6794}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:kobv:co1-opus4-67947}, school = {BTU Cottbus - Senftenberg}, year = {2024}, abstract = {This Rahmenpapier discusses the performativity approaches of Bourdieu and Butler as reflexive research perspectives on the social construction of migrant and refugee identities. Focusing on the performativity of speech acts and emotionalized enactments, I employ empirical data examples about commodified and familial care work that reveals how migration and refugeeness are constituted in micro-level face-to-face interactions. Introducing the concepts of doing, undoing and not doing migration/refugeeness, I show different care performances that reproduce, transform or subvert social identities in the interplay of individual agency with the social regulation by institutional, organizational and discursive structures of the national migration, asylum and integration regimes. Throughout the paper, I argue that the social order of migration/refugeeness is biopolitical and postcolonial: drawing on historical images of orientalism, social positions of internal others are constituted and simultaneously subordinated to the majority society. Regulated by biopolitical means of administration and disciplining, social processes of doing of migration/refugeeness generate affective values in the images of internal and external others, who supposedly depend on the care and control of the hegemonic nation. When 'migrant/refugee workers' are used as an effective and economical solution to the increasing labor demand of the nation and when 'refugee families' become a commodity on the national market of public and private social services, the social order of migration/refugeeness materializes in productive values that benefit the nation state.}, subject = {Refugeenes; Migration; Reflexivity; Performativity; Identities; Flucht; Performativit{\"a}t; Identit{\"a}t; Biopolitik; Biopolitik; Fl{\"u}chtlingslager; Identit{\"a}t; Performativit{\"a}t }, language = {en} } @phdthesis{Shalaginova2012, author = {Shalaginova, Iryna}, title = {Understanding heritage: a constructivist approach to heritage interpretation as a mechanism for understanding heritage sites}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:kobv:co1-opus-25048}, school = {BTU Cottbus - Senftenberg}, year = {2012}, abstract = {This paper offers a new perspective on heritage interpretation as a mechanism for understanding heritage sites. It builds a theory of understanding for heritage interpretation based on constructivism perspectives, which shift the focus of attention from heritage interpretation and the process of understanding as a purely cognitive process into a communicative one. In such a view understanding a heritage site means meeting orientation expectations put forth by heritage interpreters in interpretive provision. By analyzing visitor responses (emotional, verbal and behavioural) managers of a heritage site and heritage interpreters are able to determine whether orientation expectations have been met and thus whether understanding took place. In so far understanding of a heritage site means orienting visitors' perceptions of and behaviours at a heritage site. The paper also analyses the role of culture in the process of understanding and in the process of heritage interpretation. Culture as such does not influence understanding, nevertheless the collective knowledge systems inherent in it are important for the process of understanding and communication, as they offer the meanings, structures and symbol systems that allow the individuals of a particular cultural group to communicate effectively with each other. Because cultures are characteristic of having a pattern and overlapping with each other, a communication and understanding between the individuals of various cultures is a difficult but not impossible process. In order to ensure effective communication and reaching understanding a communication model for heritage interpretation was suggested with three interlinked components (team of communicators, active meaning-maker and interpretive medium), which ensure message formation, interpretation and exchange. In order to assist in communication with various visitors, and especially visitors from different cultural backgrounds, some techniques in the construction of information have been analysed, which allow assisting in reaching understanding on the presented issues in heritage interpretation. These techniques are framing, making of themes and stories. The use of these techniques in the construction of the interpretive information, as well as the overall influence of interpretive provision for understanding, have been tested in two cross-sectional studies. These studies have shown that, in view of constructivism theories, a well developed interpretive activity is able to contribute to a better understanding of a heritage site.}, subject = {Welterbe; Kommunikationsmodell; Besucherorientierte Interpretation; Kommunikation; Framing; Themen; Erbest{\"a}tten; Heritage interpretation; Communication; Framing; Themes; Heritage}, language = {en} } @phdthesis{OumaRadoli2019, author = {Ouma Radoli, Lydia}, title = {Narratives of migration and development as discourses in transnational digital migrant media : the case of Kenyan migration to Europe}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:kobv:co1-opus4-47805}, school = {BTU Cottbus - Senftenberg}, year = {2019}, abstract = {This dissertation examines how migration and development narratives are (re)produced in transnational digital migrant media using an example of Kenyan migration to Europe. It also raises questions about existing gaps in the literature on the role of the media specifically, transnational digital migrant media in constructing influential discourses. It achieves this quest by submitting to an objective to examine the contribution of migrant media discourses to development in migration-sending countries (De Haas, 2007). Using postcolonial-discourse theoretic approach, the thesis analyses the criteria for selection of texts on migration and development, and how the texts inform the discourse. The theoretical concepts of development in this thesis follow Arturo Escobar's (1995) deconstruction of conventional development theory. It includes an appreciation of multi-faceted theoretic dynamics, especially historical effects on development and creation of hegemonic disparities causing migration of Kenyans to Europe. The dissertation explores the relation of liberal development narratives to Postcolonial perspectives of Edward Said (1977), Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak (1986) and Homi Bhabha (1983), whose writings expose stereotypes like those found in development constructs. The study highlights similar aspects of representations of migration and development in the media. It does not only expose migrant's contribution to development but accentuates the discourse forming function of migrant media in the production of heterogeneous narratives on migration and development. This reflection is an attempt to look at possibilities of alternative development trajectories in migrant media and Postcolonial texts, that resist neo-colonial economic narratives forced on people of African descent. The findings for this thesis show that migrant media provides hegemonic ideas on development, as well as alternative counter-hegemonic views. Even though poverty and political instability of Africa characterize narratives in the mainstream media, migrant media utilizes new media platforms for "subalterns" to be heard. Migrants' inputs on development (re)produced in migrant media, inform a discourse that champions initiatives aimed at improving livelihoods in migration-sending countries. To answer the main sociological question on (re)production of narratives this dissertation learns from Norman Fairclough's (1995, 2012) guidelines to discourse analysis, as informed from Michel Foucault's (1980) theoretic approach. As a qualitative research strategy, the dissertation explores Texts from transnational digital migrant media for Kenyans in Europe (Germany and UK) and expert interviews with Kenyan media producers in Germany and in Britain. On this basis, the thesis argues that not only are media expert's contributors to development but also important creators of a discourse that qualifies migration as a reality in Kenya's development.}, subject = {Media narratives; Migration and development; Postcolonialism; Migrations crisis; Kenyans in Europe; Medienberichte; Migration und Entwicklung; Postkolonialismus; Migrationskrise; Kenianer in Europa; Europa; Kenianer; Migration; Neue Medien; Postkolonialismus; Darstellung}, language = {en} } @phdthesis{SienraIracheta2023, author = {Sienra Iracheta, Estibaliz}, title = {The 'cultural appropriation' of traditional textiles from Mexico : an analysis of 3 case studies}, doi = {10.26127/BTUOpen-6612}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:kobv:co1-opus4-66120}, school = {BTU Cottbus - Senftenberg}, year = {2023}, abstract = {This doctoral thesis intended to examine the phenomenon of 'cultural appropriation' of traditional textiles from Mexico through an analysis of 3 case studies. This research had the objective of understanding the phenomenon through the relationships, perspectives, and discourses of the social actors involved, by following the development of controversies involving different objects of material culture from different communities: the xaam n{\"i}xuy Ayuujk (Mixe) blouse from Santa Maria Tlahuitoltepec, Oaxaca; the H{\~n}uh{\´u} and H{\~n}ah{\~n} (Otomi) "Tenango" embroideries from the communities of Tenago de Doria and San Nicolas in Hidalgo; and the mestizo gabanes from Santa Clara del Cobre and Nahuatzen in the State of Michoac{\´a}n. This doctoral examination was sustained through theoretical approximations that located the occurrences within transnational/ transcultural processes, engaging with qualitative methodologies and multi-sited ethnographies in order to obtain data that elucidated on the diversity of objects, actors, relationships, understandings, perceptions, values, and discourses involved in the 'cultural appropriation' of traditional textiles controversies in the country. The content analysis of this doctoral research dissected a number of different processes, effects, and consequences of the phenomenon as it developed in dissimilar locations and periods of time. The examination revealed a complex intersection of meanings, productions, circulations, and consumptions of culture, that simultaneously affected cultural meanings, relationships, and processes, raising concerns over the management of traditional textiles as objects of cultural heritage, and the unviability of protecting communal creative domains through national legal mechanisms.}, subject = {Cultural heritage studies; Cultural appropriation; Traditional textiles; Transculturation; Cultural rights; Kulturelle Aneignung; Traditionelle Textilien; Kunsthandwerk; Transkulturation; Kulturelle Rechte; Mexiko; Kunsthandwerk; Textilien; Kultur{\"u}bertragung; Kulturelle Rechte}, language = {en} } @misc{HajKhanMirzaiSarraf2020, type = {Master Thesis}, author = {Haj Khan Mirzai Sarraf, Ali}, title = {Heritage and continuity in the bazaar}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:kobv:co1-opus4-51717}, school = {BTU Cottbus - Senftenberg}, year = {2020}, abstract = {Tehran Bazaar has been the most influential marketplace in Iran, over the last two hundred years, since Tehran became the capital of the country. The Bazaar has been a significant socio-political agent in Iranian society. Nevertheless, less attention has been given to its internal atmosphere, where the bazaaris, have tried to conserve their traditions and preserve their heritage. One of these heritages are "hey'ats", religious formations for holding mourning sessions in Muharram month, as a ritual in Shi'a Islam. "Hey'ats" give the guilds a sense of collective identity, they represent them, and also build a shared heritage for them. The Drapers' Guild was the first guild in Tehran Bazaar, founding a hey'at. They founded this hey'at in 1883 and named it "the Drapers' Hey'at". After the Islamic Revolution of 1979, the Drapers faced difficulties preserving their heritage. They were forced to displace the Mirza Mousa Mosque in the Bazaar. The Mosque was their center for holding religious sessions and was publicly known as "the Drapers' Mosque". Since they were attached to the Mosque, their displacement was perceived a loss of heritage. Later, they decided to build a new home, "the Drapers' Hosseinieh". They decided to implement the interior design of their lost Mosque in the new place. This strategy enabled them overcome "the traumatic experience of displacement and heritage loss." Also, to safeguard their new place, they legally registered their hey'at as an institution, and they wrote a constitution for it. The attempts for modernization, led them to develop beneficiary activities, as well. In this research, a qualitative approach is applied, benefiting from multiple methodologies, including; ethnography, secondary sources, and visual methods. The researcher has attempted to outline the story of the Drapers in preserving their heritage. This study hopefully would be useful for similar traditional organizations, showing how continuity and heritage preservation are possible to achieve for communities having experienced a troubled past.}, subject = {Tehran; Guilds of Bazaar; Muharram; Iran; Heritage Preservation; Teheran; Gilden des Basars; Erhaltung des kulturellen Erbes; Teheran; Basar; Gilde; Tuchmacher; Kulturerbe}, language = {en} } @phdthesis{Wong2013, author = {Wong, Chee Meng}, title = {Intangible cultural heritage of dance as medium for intercultural dialogue : culture assimilator reinterpreted}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:kobv:co1-opus-29361}, school = {BTU Cottbus - Senftenberg}, year = {2013}, abstract = {This thesis explores two different models in the use of cultural heritage as a medium for intercultural exchange. This role of cultural heritage is discussed under a larger political framework of intercultural dialogue as a policy approach in managing cultural diversity, with specific reference to the 2008 Council of Europe's White Paper on Intercultural Dialogue. This policy approach is analysed here in terms of the goal in social cohesion and the liberal, procedural commitment in democracy towards cultural and value pluralism, with its relevance discussed in the context of Singapore, which claims an approach of 'communitarianism' upholding 'Asian values'. Against the background of racism problems in Singapore, the staging and interpretation of Indian dance heritage in Singapore will be analysed between a transcultural and a multicultural model of intercultural dialogue, the former focusing on creative engagement to overcome differences in cultural identity, the latter focusing on mutual understanding and respect of differences. As part of the multicultural model, one will analyse cross-cultural interaction as 'critical incidents' based on the 'Culture Assimilator' method (otherwise known as the Intercultural Sensitizer) in intercultural communication training - which German social psychologist Alexander Thomas has repositioned in an intercultural competence framework aligned with systems theory. This framework will be adapted to discuss the aspects of open-mindedness and empathy in intercultural learning through cultural heritage, and to deconstruct cultural differences.}, subject = {Singapore; Tanz; Immaterielles Kulturerbe; Kulturvergleich; Immaterielles Kulturerbe; Tanz; Interkultureller Dialog; Singapore; Intangible heritage; Dance; Intercultural Dialogue; Singapore}, language = {en} } @phdthesis{Prodan2013, author = {Prodan, Anca Claudia}, title = {The digital "Memory of the World" : an exploration of documentary practices in the age of digital technology}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:kobv:co1-opus4-30132}, school = {BTU Cottbus - Senftenberg}, year = {2013}, abstract = {This research is a study of the UNESCO "Memory of the World" Programme established with the purpose to increase awareness of the existence and relevance of documentary heritage, and to achieve its universal and permanent accessibility. In this context, digital technology is increasingly used to provide access to documentary heritage but this activity also leads to a series of changes in how documents are understood and handled. Starting from the observation that the conceptual and practical changes triggered by digital technology in the "Memory of the World" do not seem to accurately reflect its stated philosophy, this research pursues the aim to critically analyze the possibilities and limits it offers. This analysis is facilitated by a conceptual framework anchored in the medium theory of Harold Innis and his concepts of medium, bias, space and time, and balance, which serve as analytical lenses to closely study selected aspects of digital technology and their influence. Despite popular beliefs that digital technology is most suitable for universal access, the findings of this present research lead to the observation that this cannot really be the case, and it reveals that an over-emphasis on the technical possibilities of digital access is not supportive of the overall purpose of the "Memory of the World", leading to the narrowing down of its potential relevance. At first glance, this may suggest not recommending at all the use of digital technology. However, acknowledging that each medium has both limits and possibilities, instead of rejecting digital technology the study searches for solutions that may assist with integrating it in the "Memory of the World" in accordance with its overall purpose and philosophy. To this end, three recommendations are elaborated, the same conceptual framework that revealed the limits of digital technology being applied to construct on their possibilities. In order to motivate why following the recommendations of this analysis would be necessary, the study concludes by shifting attention from the relevance of digital technology in the "Memory of the World" Programme to the relevance of the Programme in a world changed by digital technology.}, subject = {Memory of the World; Ged{\"a}chtnis der Menschheit; Documentary heritage; UNESCO; Medium theory; Digital technology; Dokumentenerbe; UNESCO; Mediumtheorie; Digitale Technologie; Kulturerbe; Information; Digitalisierung}, language = {en} }