The Political Opportunity of Heritage: Appropriations, Memories, and Identities in Cabanyal

Abstract

This article provides an overview of the role of heritage in the context of an urban conflict between a neighborhood and the local city government. In our view, heritage emerges as a fighting ground for opposing ideologies. Its political character allows us to examine the uses and strategies employed by the different social stakeholders involved. The underlying tension in heritage practices is a result of the struggle for capitals and meanings. To observe this confrontational dimension regarding heritage, our case study focuses on the neighborhood Cabanyal (Valencia, Spain) during the period from 1998 to 2020. This example enables us to see how the different heritage assets contained in the neighborhood are approached, adapted, or siezed by local public administrations and by the different urban movements that arose after the outset of the conflict. For this analysis, we propose using the framework of what we will call the Political Opportunity of Heritage. Last of all, we describe how the heritage apparatus is used as a vehicle for histories, memories, and plural identities in the same place. The multiple uses of heritage assets allow us to shed light on the political rationales behind them and the resistance they encounter.