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Lookup NU author(s): Dr Stelios Lekakis
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License (CC BY-NC-ND).
This paper explores and conceptualises the texture and values of rural heritage, by drawing on empirical evidence from Naxos island in Greece. Informed by landscape theory, it critically examines the character and significance of this composite past that is made up from an assemblage of tangible and intangible elements interwoven with the island's agricultural life as recently as the mid-20th century. The paper uses a mix of qualitative research methods for the co-creation of data with surrounding communities and follows a dialectical approach to analysis, whereby community discourses of rurality are situated within a broader historical context that encourages reflection on the role of ideology and socio-economic relations in heritage reception and interpretation. Most notably, the study shows that the dominant imagined discourses are antagonised by autobiographical counter-narratives that transform meanings and associative values at local level. As it is argued, the man-made and natural components of the islands' rural landscape form together a heritage ‘in the making’, a process of bottom-up heritage designation by the surrounding communities, an act of ‘mnemeiosis’ outside the official narrative and cultural management practice.
Author(s): Lekakis S, Dragouni M
Publication type: Article
Publication status: Published
Journal: Journal of Rural Studies
Year: 2020
Volume: 77
Pages: 84-92
Print publication date: 01/07/2020
Online publication date: 25/05/2020
Acceptance date: 14/04/2020
Date deposited: 02/08/2019
ISSN (print): 0743-0167
ISSN (electronic): 1873-1392
Publisher: Elsevier
URL: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jrurstud.2020.04.021
DOI: 10.1016/j.jrurstud.2020.04.021
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