Re-shaping the City through Heritagization? Forming Alternative Pathways in Everyday Landscapes

History shapes the present and lays the foundation for the future. However, in contemporary times, history often appears insignificant in the daily experiences of most people. This makes the task of highlighting certain individuals, events, or objects, and imbuing mundane everyday life with meaning and coherence, a crucial issue in modern society. This is where the role of memorialization comes into play. Memorialization can be an intimate act within a community but may also rely on state institutions and resources to become heritage, a process known as heritagization. Does this mean that history is thus reconstructed, transcending the everyday? Do people then reinterpret their daily environment, paving the way for a potentially different future? Under what circumstances might alternative pathways become possible? This lecture will delve into the concepts of memorialization and heritagization and explore, through case studies of Taiwan, the potential connections between everyday life, memorialized landscapes, and alternative urban development.

Yu-Ting Kao is currently a research scholar in the Graduate Institute of Building and Planning, National Taiwan University, where she leads a three-year research project, ‘Shrinking Island? Policy Analysis and Experiential Exploration of Spatial Restructuring.’ Her research expertise includes cultural studies of space, urban-rural environment changes and social transformation, and the mechanisms of urban governance. She is particularly interested in the transformative potential embedded in the everyday environment and how a re-interpretation and new understandings of these spaces may lead to practices that can incrementally challenge uneven development, while also fostering alternatives for more sustainable and egalitarian ways of living. Her current research focuses on “dwelling within shrinkage,” with a particular emphasis on cities and towns that exist in the “in-between” of the urban-rural spectrum. She believes these areas can offer practical insights into the impending challenges and opportunities presented by a society facing population restructuring.