Introduction

Abstract

This special issue of Articulo – Journal of Urban Research addresses the question of urban heritage through the prism of dominant and dominated memories. It raises the question of inequality among social groups concerning their ability to build memories, i.e., their ability to build and rebuild narratives of the past, in the conflicts and negotiations with other groups. The six articles gathered here tackle the processes of “building” urban heritage, in urban renewal, rehabilitation and enhancement projects, as well as the construction of narratives in France, Italy, Portugal and Haiti. In doing so, they all shed light on the tensions in the uses of urban space – regarding housing, neighbourhoods or factories – between inhabitants and politicians (or between inhabitants and institutional discourses) and between dominated and dominant groups. Each of these articles also focuses on how these processes reconfigure collective memories by harnessing and valuing, or on the opposite, by denying and transforming these memories. It is of course the question of domination today that is pointed out by these queries about the dominations of the narratives of the past and the attempts to erase popular classes’ memories. What is explored here is finally the question of the fabric of the city, the metropolis and the small town, taking as a point of departure its past constantly reassessed in a power imbalance.

Keywords

• urban heritage
• memories
• dominations
• narratives
• urban renewal.