The promises and limitations of digital participation in heritage: Planning transmedia heritage districts in superdiverse cities

ABSTRACT

New technologies have been argued to drive a more inclusive heritage discourse that accommodates a plurality of narratives. This article aims to examine this assumption based on the analysis of the heritage digitalisation strategies of Doha and Singapore. These cities have made significant investments in heritage preservation and digital technologies, positioning themselves as smart, creative, and culturally diverse urban centres. At the core of these strategies are transmedia heritage districts, which, despite having limited physical remnants of the past, revive their heritage across a range of online and offline channels. Based on an analysis of policy documents and on fieldwork in these cities, this article raises questions regarding the transformative power of the digital and its ability to democratise and pluralise the heritage discourse. I argue that while heritage digitalisation can function as a tool to showcase openness, strategically empower co-opted civic dynamics, it can also reinforce the prevailing heritage narrative. The transmedia heritage district serves as a policy instrument that displays the civic potential of digital heritage technologies in order to enable urban transformation and incorporate selected minority voices into the authorised heritage discourse.

KEYWORDS:

• transmedia heritage district
• heritage digitalisation
• civic participation
• urban governance
• Doha
• Singapore

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the H2020 Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions [843269].

Notes on contributors

Jeremie Molho

Jeremie Molho is Senior Research Associate at Canada Excellence Research Chair in Migration and Integration at Toronto Metropolitan University. He received his BA in Middle Eastern studies and MA in urban studies from Sciences Po Paris, and his PhD in geography (2016) from the University of Angers, France. Jeremie’s research focuses on globalisation, cultural policies and diversity governance in cities. He conducted research on the globalisation of art markets in Istanbul, Singapore, Doha and Hong Kong, and his recent research explores Singapore and Doha’s cultural policies and diversity management regimes. Jeremie has co-edited several journal special issues, including ‘Beyond Soft Power: The stakes and configurations of the influence of contemporary Turkey in the world’ in the European Journal of Turkish Studies in 2015 and ‘Cultural Policies in cities of the Global South: a Multiscalar Approach’ in the International Journal of Cultural Policies in 2020. He also created several Massive Open Online Courses on culture, heritage and digitalisation, including ‘Culture in the Digital Age’, and ‘Cultural Heritage and the City’.