A systematic review of literature on contested heritage

Abstract

Contested heritage has increasingly been studied by scholars over the last two decades in multiple disciplines, however, there is still limited knowledge about what contested heritage is and how it is realized in society. Therefore, the purpose of this paper is to produce a systematic literature review on this topic to provide a holistic understanding of contested heritage, and delineate its current state, trends and gaps. Methodologically, four electronic databases were searched, and 102 journal articles published before 2020 were extracted. A content analysis of each article was then conducted to identify key themes and variables for classification. Findings show that while its research often lacks theoretical underpinnings, contested heritage is marked by its diversity and complexity as it becomes a global issue for both tourism and urbanization.By presenting a holistic understanding of contested heritage, this review offers an extensive investigation of the topic area to help move literature pertaining contested heritage forward.

A review on destination social responsibility: towards a research agenda

“…Scopus and Web of Science (WoS) scientific databases were selected to identify published studies because of their comprehensiveness and inclusion of high-impact and peer-reviewed journal articles (Kuhzady et al, 2020). The use of peer-reviewed journal articles in systematic reviews reduces flaws and enhances the quality of results (Bichler, 2021;Liu et al, 2021;Scott et al, 2019). Following the recommendation that reviews should not focus only on leading journals in the field (Koseoglu et al, 2016), we did not filter specific journals indexed in the selected databases.…”

“…Reference lists were checked to ensure no relevant article matching the selection criteria was absent from the research. Following systematic review procedures used in previous research (Liu et al, 2021;Prayag et al, 2019;Yang et al, 2017), the selection process of publications to review can be observed in Figure 1 by adapting the PRISMA flowchart (Page et al, 2021).…”

“…Bibliometrix (Biblioshiny) software from 'R package' was used to import metadata generated from the databases and analyse evaluative bibliometric information (Aria & Cuccurullo, 2017). A spreadsheet was created in Excel to summarize the relevant categories for analysis and synthesis (Liu et al, 2021;Yang et al, 2017).…”

A bibliometric analysis of cultural heritage research in the humanities: The Web of Science as a tool of knowledge management

“…Even though cultural heritage scholarship includes a broad body of literature, as well as literary reviews on more specific topics, such as the social and economic value of heritage (Dümcke and Gnedovsky, 2013 ), the societal impact of cultural heritage (SoPHIA, 2020 ), climate change and cultural heritage (Orr et al, 2021 ), contested heritage (Liu et al, 2021 ), or heritage diplomacy (Lähdesmäki and Čeginskas, 2022 )—to mention just a few—the scholarship still lacks a comprehensive analysis exploring publication volume and its patterning in relation to structural forces such as the change in cultural heritage regimes and the emergence of new powerful institutional actors that shape this scientific production. The core objective of our article is to uncover such patterns and understand the intellectual structure of cultural heritage research that is regarded as high-quality due to its presence in one of the most respectable journal databases.…”

How do aesthetics and tourist involvement influence cultural identity in heritage tourism? The mediating role of mental experience

“…On the other hand, heritage tourism presents culture in a way that tourists can easily accept and promotes the cultural understanding and identity of heritage tourists in the hedonistic context of tourism activities ( Zhang L. et al, 2018 ; Gao et al, 2021 ). Heritage tourism plays a crucial part in promoting and disseminating culture ( Liu et al, 2021 ), and it becomes a unique form and effective instrument for heritage tourists to receive historical and cultural education about the country in a subtle way. Moreover, tourists’ aesthetics of the environment is important to the relationship between heritage tourism and cultural identity ( Zhang L. et al, 2018 ; Yang et al, 2022 ).…”