Editorial: Working-class heritage and the city. (1st September 2019)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Millington, Gareth; Wallace, Andrew
• Is Part Of: Journal of urban cultural studies. Volume 6:Number 2/3(2019)
• Page Start: 183
• Page End: 197
• Publication Date: 2019-09-01
• Subjects: Sociology, Urban -- Periodicals; Cities and towns -- Periodicals; City planning -- Periodicals; 307.7605
• DOI: 10.1386/jucs_00009_1
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 2050-9790

Abstract

AbstractHere, we introduce a series of concepts and debates that provide a meta-context for the papers on the topic of working-class heritage and the city that follow. We propose Henri Lefebvre's seminal work on the dissolution of the city as a theoretical framing device via brief detours through notions of museification, authenticity and 'communicity'. The fundamental problematic, as we see it, is that urban working-class heritage is symptomatic of the dissolution of the industrial city and an attempt ‐ conditioned by economic, social, cultural and political imperatives ‐ to reimagine and/or reconfigure the legacies of this city. While we agree that heritage is an active process ‐ it is selected, curated, narrated and interpreted, or 'decoded' by individuals and social groups in a reflexive manner ‐ we also suggest, on the evidence of the papers collected here, that working-class heritage delivers an ambivalent experience and response.