Heritagisation and social time - Safi: A city of resilience and resilient people
Neno, A. (2015). Heritagisation and social time - Safi: A city of resilience and resilient people, in: Themudo Barata, F. et al. (Ed.) Heritages and Memories from the Sea. 1st International Conference of the UNESCO Chair in Intangible Heritage and Traditional Know-How: Linking Heritage 14-16 January 2015. Évora. Portugal. Conference Proceedings. pp. 212-221 In: Themudo Barata, F.; Magalhães Rocha, J. (Ed.) (2015). Heritages and Memories from the Sea. 1st International Conference of the UNESCO Chair in Intangible Heritage and Traditional Know-How: Linking Heritage 14-16 January 2015. Évora. Portugal. Conference Proceedings. Electronic edition 2015. UNESCO/UniTwin/Universidade de Evora: Evora. ISBN 978-989-99442-0-6. 228 pp., more | |
Available in | Author | | Document type: Conference paper
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Keyword | | Author keywords | heritagisation, Safi, memory, city, post-colonialism |
Abstract | The relationship between the city of Safi and the central government has been very fragile at several moments in its history. Even after independence, the delicate relations with the national territory remain a feature of the city. This political context has led the State to distance itself from the development of local cultural policies and the preservation of the built heritage. Investment in industrial growth has also brought profound changes to the social fabric of the city, with a strong impact on its restructuring and on the preservation of historic districts. Only one of the monuments inscribed on the city’s list of heritage buildings is open to the public. Civil society, represented by a very significant number of local associations, has had a very important role in the challenge of reintegrating cultural heritage in the revalorisation strategies designed for the city. In his work A Place in History: Social and Monumental Time in a Cretan Town, Herzfeld introduced the concepts of “monumental time” and “social time” as tools for understanding heritage. His considerations alert us to the difficulty in creating balance between the norms and trends of the heritagisation process, that shape what he terms “monumental time”, and the time experienced by the inhabitants of places, whose actions give a sense of present and confer social time to the places they inhabit. |
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