Good-bye to all that: COVID-19 and the transformations of cultural heritage

Abstract

Economists, political scientists, and journalists around the world have suggested that the COVID-19 pandemic will have long-term effects on twenty-first-century global society. As a precipitating factor in the final collapse of the post-1945 world order, the pandemic has been seen as an epochal turning point in human history. This article will examine the long-term effects that the pandemic may have on the protection and promotion of cultural heritage, which has become a major economic and political undertaking in the post-World War II era, with earlier roots in elite aesthetics and the rise of mass tourism in the nineteenth century. This article will identify some dramatic changes in economic activity and politics that may transform the social role of cultural heritage in the coming decades.

Local philanthropy and the transformation of culture in Oaxaca, Mexico

“…14 Other scholars have added to this picture, pointing out that Mexico has the smallest nonprofit sector in Latin America, with most human services provided by the government in a state-centric 5 Ostrower 2004. 6 For recent perspectives on philanthropists' influence on regional culture, see Katz and Reisman 2020;Silberman 2021. 7 DiMaggio 1982 DiMaggio 1990.…”

“… Ostrower 2004. 6 For recent perspectives on philanthropists' influence on regional culture, seeKatz and Reisman 2020;Silberman 2021. …”

Gone in a Flash: COVID-19 and Social Sustainability Impacts at Melaka World Heritage City

“…This virtual oxymoronic promise of increase in visitorship and tourism development at the site, inevitably places pressure on the very heritage, they had sought to preserve in the first place (Tan et al, 2018). Despite the uncertainty that COVID-19 brings to the tourism sector, it remains clear that when WHSs are over-dependent on tourism, seismic crisis events such as COVID-19 can be disruptive (Silberman, 2020;Zwain, | 6 Gone in a Flash: COVID-19 and Social Sustainability Impacts at Melaka World Heritage City. https://doi.org/10.58345/AUPA5622 | 6 2021).…”

“…Gone in a Flash: COVID-19 and Social Sustainability Impacts at Melaka World Heritage City. https://doi.org/10.58345/AUPA5622 | 7 long as heritage is packaged and commercialised as a product for sale, the inevitable tension and conflicting agendas of economic returns vis-à-vis social-cultural and conservation objectives will exist (Ryan & Silvanto, 2010;Silberman, 2020). One such tension from the conflicting agendas, is addressing concerns on the limits of carrying capacity.…”

“…However, carrying capacity considerations go beyond just the volume of visitors and tourism activity. In the wake of COVID-19, tourism hotspots and WHSs that used to experience overtourism, have suddenly emptied (Alvarez-Sousa & Paniza Prados, 2020;Silberman, 2020). As extant discourse on carrying capacity (Muler Gonzalez et al, 2017;Zhao et al, 2018) observe, variations in tourism volume at either extreme scale, creates significant challenges to social sustainability and residents' impact perceptions.…”