ANNUAL CONGRESS 2025

Urban Peripheries as Lived Heritage and Spaces of Resistance

Not scheduled

20m

Yildiz Technical University, Istanbul

Oral Track 06 | URBAN CULTURES AND LIVED HERITAGE

Speaker

Dr Mesut Dinler (Politecnico di Torino)

Description

Heritage, although often framed as a notion associated with the past, can also be understood as a paradigm shaping contemporary society and influencing the future. While our perception of the urban environment is largely conditioned by binaries such as culture vs. nature, human vs. nonhuman, and center vs. periphery, these dualities not only reflect conceptual divisions but also underscore the unequal distribution of power and resources. Such a binary understanding of the world is deeply rooted in centuries-long colonial power dynamics. In the heritage field, this is evident in distinctions such as listed vs. unlisted sites, monumental vs. residential heritage, and the UNESCO heritage list vs. locally valued cultural assets, historic centre vs. peripheries - reinforcing a hierarchy that often marginalizes informal and vernacular heritage practices.  

With this paper, we suggest a reframing of urban peripheries as a field of investigation where such binaries can be challenged, and unofficial (non-authorized) engagements with heritage can reveal new ways of interpreting the past, understanding the present, and imagining the future. Because, urban peripheries offer a compelling counterpoint, revealing heritage as a dynamic, lived process shaped by informal practices, migration, and everyday resistance. This paper interrogates the role of urban peripheries as spaces of alternative heritage production, where marginalized communities negotiate cultural memory outside the bounds of institutional heritage management.

Drawing from research on the Aurora district in Turin, the paper employs a multi-methodological approach combining historical archival research, spatial analysis through international and national land-use datasets, and video-based documentation. The archival research investigates the district’s working-class history, its role in labor strikes, and its antifascist resistance movements. Simultaneously, spatial analysis offers insights into the district’s evolving land uses and socio-economic transformations. Additionally, video recordings of abandoned and underutilized buildings serve as a tool to examine contemporary informal engagements, including their repurposing for political messaging, the acceptance of decay and ruin as a form of heritage-making, and the use of graffiti, squatting, and occupation as strategies of cultural expression.

By navigating through the lived heritage of an urbanized society in the urban peripheries, this research frames urban periphery as a concept deeply embedded in power dynamics rather than just a spatial or geographical designation. The study explores how informal uses and engagements with the built environment serve as a transformative force, capable of reshaping dominant narratives and contributing to more just and inclusive urban futures.

Building on critical heritage and urban studies, this research interrogates how marginalized histories and everyday practices challenge authorized heritage discourses imposed by state agencies and international institutions. It highlights the ways in which non-institutional heritage practices—such as occupation, repurposing, and acts of resistance—offer new frameworks for understanding urban transformation and cultural memory.

Ultimately, this paper argues for a paradigm shift in heritage governance—one that embraces lived heritage as an active agent of social change, recognizing the power of community-driven engagements in redefining urban landscapes and fostering democratic participation in shaping urban futures.