Recent debates about the return of colonially looted heritage have furthered the discussions on decolonisation around the world, and have reignited questions surrounding “what is, and who owns, cultural heritage”. These discourses in the meaning, production and management of heritage – with a growing presence of themes that address “Latinities” – have gained greater visibility in Latin America and the Caribbean, as challenges surrounding cultural heritage arise more prominently worldwide. The attention on this region aims to contextualise the various theoretical, empirical, and critical perspectives in relation to the negotiation of decolonisation. Hence, this book focuses on the analysis of diverse modes of confronting the power underlying colonial heritage that can contribute to pushing boundaries and persuading changes in pre-established definitions of political thought and local identities. To this end, the chapters in this book focus on a wide scope of topics, ranging from the repatriation and restitution of cultural heritage, and diasporic movements to decolonial practices around monuments, museums, and education. In so doing, this volume challenges stereotypes that made Latin America and the Caribbean a space of mere reproducibility of external ideas, and instead provides a space to show current decolonial perspectives and practices developed in the region that will enrich the international debate on the contestation of colonial legacies and decolonisation of cultural heritage.

This volume brings together work by authors who draw upon sociological and criminological methods, theory, and frameworks, to produce research that pushes boundaries, considers new questions, and reshape the existing understanding of "art crimes", with a strong emphasis on methodological innovation and novel theory application. Criminologists and sociologists are poorly represented in academic discourse on art and culture related crimes. However, to understand topics like theft, security, trafficking, forgery, vandalism, offender motivation, the efficacy of and results of policy interventions, and the effects art crimes have on communities, we must develop the theoretical and methodological models we use for analyses. The readership of this book is expected to include academics, researchers, and practitioners in the fields of criminology, sociology, law, and heritage studies who have an interest in art and heritage crime.

Heritage represents the meanings and representations conveyed in the present day upon artifacts, landscapes, mythologies, memories and traditions from the past. It is a key element in the shaping of identities, particularly in the context of increasingly multicultural societies. This Research Companion brings together an international team of authors to discuss the concepts, ideas and practices that inform the entwining of heritage and identity. They have assembled a wide geographical range of examples and interpret them through a number of disciplinary lenses that include geography, history, museum and heritage studies, archaeology, art history, history, anthropology and media studies. This outstanding companion offers scholars and graduate students a thoroughly up-to-date guide to current thinking and a comprehensive reference to this growing field.

This engaging reassessment of postcolonial Kenya argues that the country’s political turmoil over the last fifteen years is a continuation of repeating patterns of political contestation and conflict across Kenya’s history. When Kibaki stole the 2007 presidential election, leading to a spiral of violence that left over 1,000 people dead in the space of a month, many analysts wondered how this could happen in a country that had previously been considered an oasis of peace in an otherwise conflict prone region. Combining political economy with political sociology, in this book Rok Ajulu demonstrates that in fact authoritarianism and the predatory deployment of the state has been the predominant feature of Kenya’s post-colonial period. Focusing on how power has been mediated in the country politically and the characters of the elites in charge, the analysis shows the dominance of extra-economic political coercion in economic activity. In a context in which economic activity remains predominantly political, continued control of state-power is so crucial for the new ruling class that it must be retained at all costs. Rok Ajulu’s masterful final book is a powerful and wide-ranging contribution to studies on post-colonial Kenya and will be an important resource for researchers from across political science, economics, history, sociology and African Studies.

Heritage practices often lead to social exclusion, as such practices can favor certain values over others. In some cases, exclusion from a society’s symbolic landscape can spark controversy, or rouse emotion so much so that they result in cultural contestation. Examples of this abound, but few studies explicitly analyze the role of government in these instances. In this volume, scholars from a variety of academic backgrounds examine the various and often conflicting roles governments play in these processes—and governments do play a role. They act as authors and authorizers of the symbolic landscape, from which societal groups may feel excluded. Yet, they also often attempt to bring parties together and play a mitigating role.

Cultural heritage is material – tangible and intangible – that signifies a culture’s history or legacy. It has become a venue for contestation, ranging in scale from protesting to violently claimed and destroyed. But who defines what is to be preserved and what is to be erased? As cultural heritage becomes increasingly significant across the world, the number of issues for critical analysis and, hopefully, mediation, arise. The issue stems from various groups: religious, ethnic, national, political, and others come together to claim, appropriate, use, exclude, or erase markers and manifestations of their own and others’ cultural heritage as a means for asserting, defending, or denying critical claims to power, land, and legitimacy. Can cultural heritage be well managed and promoted while at the same time kept within parameters so as to diminish contestation? The cases herein rage from Greece, Spain, Egypt, the UK, Syria, Zimbabwe, Italy, the Balkans, Bénin, and Central America.

Examining international case studies including USA, Asia, Australia and New Zealand, this book identifies and explores the use of heritage throughout the world. Challenging the idea that heritage value is self-evident, and that things must be preserved, it demonstrates how it gives tangibility to the values that underpin different communities.