Review of UNESCO in Southeast Asia: World Heritage Sites in Comparative Perspectives

‘UNESCO in Southeast Asia: World Heritage Sites in Comparative Perspectives’ is a much-welcomed edited volume, which offers a broad overview of the management of UNESCO WorldHeritage Sites (WHS) in Southeast Asia. It presents a comparative approach to understanding theimplications of UNESCO’s designation of WHS in Southeast Asia by exploring not only thetransformations of the physical sites and their local communities, but also the wider local,national, and global eco-systems in which the sites are embedded. Based on in-depth analysis ofa selection of WHS in seven Southeast Asian countries, the book offers a comparative approachto understand the variegated aspects of heritage representation, contestation, and management,bringing into questions issues of authenticity, nationalism, and identity, as well as heritage’s rolein economic, social and community development, in Southeast Asia’s context.