This 47th volume of the ASLU series focuses on the practical challenges of managing a World Heritage listed historic city in a South Asian context. The Indian Ocean island of Sri Lanka's Galle Fort, a walled town, identified as the best-preserved colonial fort in South Asia, is the subject of this study. The book analyses the costs and benefits of the fort's World Heritage recognition to its local urban community and to the colonial fort itself, as a monument. It shows how thirty years of the World Heritage project at Galle Fort changed a once small seaside walled town with dilapidated colonial buildings into a tourist hot-spot and prime real estate, also changing the lives of its inhabitants. The work addresses the range of impacts of this process such as gentrification, real estate pressures, and urban regeneration in a balanced way. It argues that the best practises of participatory and people-centred approaches of managing urban heritage at the global level are slow to progress at the local level. By highlighting the strong emotional attachment of local residents towards their landscape, the book proposes seeing the residential urban community as "preserver" of the historic city. While seeing the World Heritage listing of Galle Fort optimistically, the book encourages the use of the World Heritage emblem for the well-being of local residents, who bring life to these landscapes.
Preface
Gateway to "the Fort": From Colonial Fortified City to a World Heritage City
World Heritage Recognition and Changing Historic Urban Landscapes
Relevance and Motivation
Aims, Objective and Methods
Scope and Structure
1. History, Overview and the World Heritage Project
1.1 Historical Background of Galle Fort
1.2 Galle Fort: A General View
1.3 World Heritage Recognition of the Old Town of Galle and its Fortifications, 1988
1.4 The Progress of the World Heritage Project Over Three Decades
2. Theoretical Framework
2.1 The Concept of Cultural Landscape
2.2 The Notion of World Heritage
2.3 The Dynamic Historic City and Current Urban Heritage Management
2.4 Participatory Planning and the People-Centred Approaches in Managing Historic Cities
2.5 Postcolonialism, Decolonization and "Colonial Monuments" in Sri Lanka
3. Methodological Framework
3.1 Research Approach and Methods
3.2 Qualitative Data Analysis Methods
3.3 Quantitative Data Analysis Methods
4. Institutional and Legal Framework
4.1 International Level: Institutions and Laws
4.2 National Level: Institutions and Laws
4.3 Local Level: Institutions and Laws
4.4 Other Institutions
4.5 Institutional Policy Documents and the Decisions of the World Heritage Committee
5. Changes to the Physical Urban Landscape
5.1 The Townhouse as a Microcosm/Signifier of the Urban Landscape
5.2 Turning the Townhouse into an Object of Income Generation
5. 3 The Colonial Façade: Positive Preservation of Interior Elements
5.4 Behind the Façade: Horizontal and Vertical Expansion of Space
5.5 A "Touristscape"
5.6 State-Owned Monuments and the General Outline of the Fort
6. Socio-Economic Changes in the Urban Landscape
6.1 What Galle Fort Means to Various Stakeholders
6.2 Changes at Galle Fort: Perceptions of the Residents
6.3 Gentrification: Foreign Investments and Laws
6.4 Gentrification: Demography and Culture
6.5 Economy and Commercialization
6.6 Case Studies: Intangible Values of the Historic Urban Landscape
7. Laws in Practice and Perceptions of Justice
Part I
7.1 Heritage Laws and Conflicting Interests
7.2. Special Regulations, 2009: A Burden for Ordinary Locals?
7.3 "Illegal" Building Activities: "Nocturnal Architecture"
7.4 Reducing "Illegal" Developments: Ideas of Heritage Officers
7.5 Is the Law Equal to All? The Negative Aspect
7.6 Is the Law Equal to All?: The Positive Aspects
Part II
7.7 Political and Bureaucratic Will
8. Conclusion and Recommendations
Acknowledgements
Appendix: Inventory of Buildings in Galle Fort (2016)
Bibliography
List of Legislation Acts and Soft Laws
Abbreviations and Acronyms
List of Figures
List of Tables
