A Future Beyond the Impasse? Exploring Post-Conflict Religious Heritage

Abstract

ABSTRACT With the alarming rise in intercommunal conflicts worldwide, knowledge regarding post-conflict cultural heritage issues must advance to help formulate effective management systems and policies. Through an Actor-Network Theory-inspired approach, this paper explores the actors’ role in protecting religious heritage sites abandoned by displaced communities. Discourse analysis of relevant literature and empirical data from exhaustive fieldwork documenting and categorising the use-status and preservation state of church sites from Northern Cyprus has revealed multiple networks of human and non-human actors and actants. Through ANT concepts of fact-building and translation, a flat platform has been developed showing the positions and interests of the conflicting parties with a focus on the neglected or underestimated dimensions of heritage protection. This platform allows heritage conservation to be viewed from a broader perspective and, in a sense, helps dilute the conflicting parties’ positions and make their stakes less critical. It also emphasises the importance of compromise solutions, including pragmatically negotiating potential alternative uses and actively integrating the local community with the stakeholder group to protect the heritage of the displaced communities.