HERITAGE AS A PROCESS: MOSAIC PLAYGROUNDS IN SINGAPORE

Abstract

In this thesis, I present the notion of heritage as a process involving the interpretation and management of heritage places. This understanding is developed empirically with the aid of mosaic playgrounds in Singapore. Investigating these playgrounds contributes to an expanded sense of heritage to include everyday spatialities beyond high-profile heritage sites and buildings. By adopting an explicit focus on the everyday users of mosaic playgrounds, I illustrate how the application of an ‘everyday geographies’ approach to the study of heritage places provides analytical balance to understandings of the heritage process. This thesis critiques the disproportionate focus on the dissonant nature of heritage advanced by many heritage researchers. I argue that the relationship between the state and everyday users is harmonious as much as it is dissonant by elucidating their (dis)agreements on the interpretations and futures of mosaic playgrounds. There is also a tendency among many heritage researchers to give more emphasis to the compromising effect of heritage management approaches on the significance of heritage places. To address this imbalance, I highlight how everyday users perceive the three state-initiated modifications to mosaic playgrounds as enhancing or having no impact on their heritage significance. This thesis adopts a ‘multiple methods’ approach, drawing its findings from quantitative data based on closed-ended questionnaire surveys collected from everyday users, qualitative data based on semi-structured interviews with everyday users and state representatives, as well as secondary data sources.