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By: Shyam Sunder Kawan and Manfredo Manfredini.
1. Ph.D. Scholar, Department of Fine Arts, Shanghai Academy of Fine Arts, Shanghai University, Shanghai, China
2. Associate Professor, Department of Architecture, The University of Auckland, New Zealand
The historic urban landscape paradigm understands cities as evolving phenomena, aligning the intangible cultural heritage perspective with the discourse on sustainable urban development. It recognizes the crucial role of collective custodianship in preserving cultural diversity. Tourism-focused, reductionist policies prioritizing economic development in cities of the Global South affected by rampant globalization profoundly challenge heritage resilience. This paper seeks to advance the discussion about sustainable development of social and cultural capital by providing evidence on the essential role of integral choral custodianship and communing for the preservation of living historic urban landscapes. It discusses a study on an endangered cultural practice of a world heritage site in Bhaktapur, Kathmandu Valley, focusing on a preeminent collective of the urban communities around a mobile and mutable cultural object: the Bhailakha chariot of the Biska Jatra festival. We describe the complex networks of relationships and spatial practices involving various human and non-human actors participating in the chariot event. We use qualitative ethnographic methodology guided by a redressed Actor-Network Theory framework. By examining the interactions between the key actors of this event, the research highlights how the Bhailakha’s stable concrete and symbolic dimensions depend on its dynamic becoming in the ever-changing socio-technical conditions. The paper elucidates the processes of affirmation, negotiation and transformation surrounding the Bhailakha, revealing the indeterminate interplay between tradition and modernity, conservation and renovation, and immanency and transcendence. The findings show the relevance of sustained, pluralistic and collaborative commoning practices for resisting endangered urban landscapes with differential development. The conclusion reflects on the contribution of applied relationality theory to the sustainable heritage discourse, advocating for the institution and adoption of a framework that requires historic urban landscape preservation policies to be based on a deep understanding of the complex embedded social, cultural and concrete dynamics of the pertinent productive networks of actants.
Keywords: Sustainable cities, community resilience, historic urban landscape, actor network theory, global south heritage, Bhaktapur
Citation:
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