Globalisation and Cultural Heritage
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NWO
Postdoctoral Project
The postdoctoral study is aimed at formulating a new theory about globalisation and cultural heritage, on the basis of existing theories on globalisation formulated by sociologists, economists and social-geographers, together with information on cultural heritage and its institutions published by historians, art historians and anthropologists.
The relationship between globalisation and cultural heritage will be elaborated in four research themes, each of them related to global developments and based on data from the situation in Indonesia.
The first theme deals with the changes that have taken place in the heritage institutions in the post-colonial countries throughout fifty years of post-colonial globalisation. To what extent is the colonial infrastructure still intact and how does it function today? Have new heritage organizations been founded in the meantime, and what is the interaction between the various institutions? Are developments in Indonesia following the same course as in other post-colonial countries, and if not, how can the differences be explained?
The second theme examines the UNESCO policy of World Heritage. Will the tendency to 'romanticize' cultural heritage weaken the position of tangible heritage, not only in non-Western countries but also in the West?
The third theme explores the impact of the information society on cultural heritage. To what extent are the heritage institutions taking part in this society, and how does Internet influence their modes of operation? Does globalisation really mean that in the near future heritage institutions will function largely as collections of information rather than objects?
The fourth theme is related to the research project to be undertaken by the Ph.D. student (see below). Most cultural heritage institutions were closely related to the objectives of the state at the time they were founded. They addressed themselves primarily to the citizens of the country in which they were located. Today the audience is more international, whether because of tourism, migration/diaspora or immigration. How will this effect the way heritage institutions care for their collections?
