Cited by 29Cultural Heritage Management and PreservationCultural Identity and HeritageUrban Development and Cultural Heritage

The DOI matches its Crossref record; 88 of the 88 references it cites were found in a registry or an index; 4 of the 68 sources its claims cite were checked for support.

INSURGENT HERITAGE: Mobilizing Memory, Place‐based Care and Cultural Citizenships

Open access
Novoa, Magdalena·2022·International Journal of Urban and Regional Research

Abstract

Bridging critical heritage studies with insurgent planning theory, this article proposes the notion of ‘insurgent heritage’ to discuss heritage preservation's role in constructing urban citizenship in Latin America. Critical heritage scholars have pointed to the European dominant heritage discourse deployed worldwide that excludes subordinated voices in the production of heritage. The research has also illuminated alternative understandings of preservation that sit outside of or opposed to the state and the cultural elites’ concept of what should or should not be preserved. My use of insurgent heritage adds another layer of nuance to this body of work. It promotes a pluriversal perspective by building on Southern urbanisms, Latin American social collective action, and feminist scholarship. Inspired by ethnographic work with heritage grassroots organizations in Chile, this line of argument shows that communities’ local knowledge pushes against the practice of heritage preservation and planning by only sanctioned experts. Instead, by transgressing false dichotomies of informal and formal arenas of politics, insurgent heritage proposes multiple perspectives to envision alternative futures. It reframes grassroots heritage as a sociocultural process mediated by the interplay of memory-work and the specifics of place as an ethical form of place-based care that highlights the cultural dimension of citizenship.

Overview

AI snapshot

Written from the paper’s full text.

TL;DR

The article theorizes "insurgent heritage" by bridging critical heritage studies with insurgent planning theory, arguing that grassroots preservation movements in Latin America mobilize memory and place-based care to expand citizenship beyond neoliberal and authorized heritage discourse (AHD) frameworks. It develops the concept through the case of Mesa Ciudadana de Patrimonio, Cultura y Turismo de Lota, a Chilean heritage organization formed after the 1997 coal mine closure.

Key findings

  • Insurgent heritage is defined as the preservation of knowledge and actions emerging from collective life to address inequalities, oblivion and exclusions in built-environment production in the global South; the article adds three principles: (1) memory-work and place as drivers of counter-hegemonic practice, (2) disruption of Eurocentric heritage discourse via place-based care, and (3) culture as an essential, even "stand-alone," dimension of citizenship.
  • Mesa operates across both "invited" and "invented" spaces of participation (Miraftab): it protests and holds sit-ins, yet also occupies the Ministry of Arts, Culture and Heritage's advisory COSOC, where its participation is "not legally binding" and described by its representative as "symbolic."
  • Mesa's alternative tourism initiative, Descubre Lota Caminando, offers five historic routes covering more and different places than the four sites promoted by the private NGO managing official heritage, and foregrounds Mapuche history, women's everyday struggles and gender violence rather than the Cousiño family narrative.
  • After the 2010 earthquake (8.8 Richter scale), Mesa secured heritage subsidies to repair 51 historic collective housing buildings, benefiting 169 homes and 703 families; in 2020, after a decade of demands, the government formed an inter-ministerial working group on a UNESCO nomination plan in which Mesa members claimed and now hold a leading voice.

Methods

  • Community-engaged qualitative research combining archival research, ethnographic methods and arts-based participatory methods, with field visits between 2016 and 2020 (ranging from several days to six months, April–September 2018).
  • Data: participant observation of Mesa, 33 in-depth interviews, 10 walking interviews, ethnographic site observations shadowing members, a collaborative arpillera urbana workshop with 55 local women (January 2020), plus ongoing informal interactions (phone, text, online workshops, home visits, email).
  • Analytical approach draws on New Chilean Social History scholarship and Latin American feminists, analyzing social movements from the ground up and in co-construction rather than through pre-established categories.

Limitations

  • The paper states that "more research is needed to expand and document insurgent heritage," posing open questions about where else it occurs, who drives it, how effective it is at improving quality of life, and how engaged scholars can support it.
  • Evident from the text: the argument rests on a single Chilean case (Lota/Mesa), and the author's close collaboration with the organization shapes the data, though the paper frames this engaged positionality as a methodological choice rather than a limitation.
  • Evident from the text: the article is largely theoretical/conceptual, offering principles rather than systematic comparative or outcome measurement.

Model-written summary. Check it against the paper before relying on it.

Integrity signals

Registry

Crossref · 10.1111/1468-2427.13143

Cites

88 of 88 references verified0 citation errors · 0 not checkable

Statistics

Nothing to recompute.

Figures

FIGURE 1 Members of Mesa marching through the streets of Lota in September 2019. The banner reads 'Heritage is a Right' (photo courtesy of Mesa Ciudadana de Patrimonio, Cultura y Turismo de Lota)
FIGURE 1 Members of Mesa marching through the streets of Lota in September 2019. The banner reads 'Heritage is a Right' (photo courtesy of Mesa Ciudadana de Patrimonio, Cultura y Turismo de Lota)CC-BY-NC-ND · From the PDF
FIGURE 2 Industrial ruins of Lota recognized as a national monument (photo by the author, January 2019)
FIGURE 2 Industrial ruins of Lota recognized as a national monument (photo by the author, January 2019)CC-BY-NC-ND · From the PDF
FIGURE 3 Mesa members cleaning and beautifying the entrance to the industrial ruins during National Heritage Day, May 2017 (photo courtesy of Mesa Ciudadana de Patrimonio, Cultura y Turismo de Lota)
FIGURE 3 Mesa members cleaning and beautifying the entrance to the industrial ruins during National Heritage Day, May 2017 (photo courtesy of Mesa Ciudadana de Patrimonio, Cultura y Turismo de Lota)CC-BY-NC-ND · From the PDF

Verification

Claims the paper makes

50 No basis given · 46 Own interpretation · 16 Sources not found · 15 No full text of the sources · 12 Not checked yet · 11 Own result · 2 Partly supported · 1 Supported · 1 Couldn’t confirm · accuracy not yet measured

Verify all 6 references — free account

Show all 48 claims

  • It may state two separate claims as one. 68
  • Probably not a substantial claim. 68
106 of 106
  • The paper relies on this without support.

    The grassroots movements in Chile, Argentina, Brazil and Latinx communities in the United States are sufficiently comparable to illustrate a single concept of insurgent heritage.

    “Chile, Argentina, Brazil and Latinx communities in the United States provide examples of grassroots movements whose members, marginalized from planning and heritage decision-making processes and authorized aesthetic canons, are mobilizing to have a voice and play an active role in defining their urban heritage.”
  • The paper relies on this without support.

    Mesa's practices are representative of Latin American heritage grassroots organizations.

    “Mesa demonstrates how heritage grassroots organizations use AHD to counter hegemonic moves without limiting themselves to 'invited' spaces of participation, instead combining them with new spaces or reappropriating old ones to invoke people's citizenship rights and advance their interests (Miraftab, 2009: 35).”
  • The paper relies on this without support.

    The Mesa organization's practices and narratives are representative of a broader grassroots insurgent heritage movement in Chile.

    “The industrial heritage of Lota illustrates how this complex heritage dynamic works in Chile (see Figure 2).”
  • The paper relies on this without support.

    The authors' interpretation of the interviews and observations accurately reflects the meanings and intentions of the participants.

    “As one local activist described to me, Lota's contemporary landscape and industrial ruins reflect the 'wound' left by the capitalist market that has since moved on.”
  • The paper relies on this without support.

    The heritage practices of Mesa Ciudadana de Patrimonio in Lota are representative of grassroots movements' insurgent heritage more broadly, so that conclusions drawn from this case hold for grassroots organizations generally.

    “The insurgent heritage explored in this article suggests that by bridging the gap between preservation and planning, we can better understand how grassroots organizations use the past as a resource in the present to conceive and advance complex radical urban and political strategies.”
5 of 5

Self-check

Percentages, sums and reported differences re-computed from the paper’s own numbers.

Each contradiction between two passages listed here was confirmed by an independent check.

1 of 1

Citations

Cites

Show all 82 references

Research works printed but not linked: 16

  1. Aravena Núñez P., 2015, Patrimonio, historiografía y memoria social: presentismo radical y abdicación de la operación histórica [Heritage, historiography and social memory: radical presentism and abdication of the historical operation], Diálogo andino, 45, 77
  2. Armijo L., 2017, El cuidado en la agenda de investigación de América Latina: continuidades de un debate actual [Care in the Latin American research agenda: continuities of a current debate], Análisis, 9, 25
  3. Carrión F., 2013, Teorías sobre la ciudad en América Latina [Theories of the Latin American city]
  4. Garcés M., 2012, El despertar de la sociedad: los movimientos sociales en América Latina y Chile [The society's awakening: the social movements in Latin America and Chile]
  5. Grez S., 1999, Manifiesto de historiadores [Historians’ manifesto]
  6. Guerra C., 1997, Nueva estrategia neoliberal: la participacion ciudadana en Chile [New neoliberal strategies: the citizens’ participation in Chile]
  7. Gutiérrez Aguilar R., 2017, Horizontes comunitario‐populares [New popular‐communal horizons]
  8. Jelin E., 2002, Los trabajos de la memoria [The works of memory]
  9. Mason‐Deese L., 2018, Where freedom starts: sex power violence #MeToo: a Verso Report
  10. Richard N., 2019, Eruptions of memory
  11. Robertson I.J.M., 2008, The Ashgate research companion to heritage and identity
  12. Salazar G., 2002, La nueva historia y los nuevos movimientos sociales [The new history and the new social movements], Revista Chilena de Temas Sociológicos, 8, 253
  13. Salazar G., 2012, Movimientos sociales en Chile: trayectoria histórica y proyección política [Social movements in Chile: historic trajectory and political projection]
  14. Smith L., 2009, Paper presented at the conference ‘Missing Out on Heritage: Socio‐economic Status and Heritage’
  15. 10.1057/9781137293565_2 · DOI
  16. Wells J.C., 2016, Latin Americans and heritage values in Allentown's 7th Street corridor, Journal of Architectural and Planning Research, 33, 181

Metadata

Authors
Novoa, M.
Venue
International Journal of Urban and Regional Research
Publisher
Wiley
Published
2022-11
Volume
46
Issue
6
Pages
1016-1034
ISSN
  • 0309-1317 (ISSN-L)
  • 1468-2427
OpenAlex
W4309012395
Cited by
24
References
82
Citations by year
2026: 8 · 2025: 9 · 2024: 4 · 2023: 3
FWCI
20.92
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Locations
International Journal of Urban and Regional Research (publishedVersion, cc-by-nc-nd)
Topics
  • Social Sciences › Arts and Humanities › Archeology (arts and humanities) › Cultural Heritage Management and Preservation
  • Social Sciences › Cultural Studies › Cultural Identity and Heritage
  • Social Sciences › Urban Studies › Urban Development and Cultural Heritage
Keywords
cultural heritage preservation, urban citizenship, Latin America, memory work, place-based care, cultural citizenship, insurgent planning, southern urbanism, community knowledge, Chile

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