LIVING ON DISPLAY: NEGOTIATING GENTRIFICATION AND CULTURAL RESILIENCE IN CHEW JETTY, GEORGE TOWN, MALAYSIA
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.21837/pm.v24i43.2099Keywords:
Gentrification, Cultural, Resilience, Heritage Sustainability, UNESCOAbstract
The designation of World Heritage Sites often precipitates a paradox where tourism capital threatens the very living heritage it aims to safeguard. This study examines Chew Jetty, a historic clan settlement within the George Town UNESCO World Heritage Site, Malaysia, to analyse how residents negotiate the tension between economic opportunism and cultural continuity. Adopting a qualitative case study approach with a sample representing a significant majority of the population, the research identifies a distinctive phenomenon of ‘commercial gentrification from below’. Motivated by the ‘rent gap’, residents actively commodify domestic spaces, leading to phenomenological displacement within the home. However, findings indicate that this does not equate to cultural erasure. Instead, the community exhibits ‘negotiated resilience’, employing strategies such as spatial regulation and the bifurcation of rituals to sustain their intangible heritage. The study challenges existing facade-oriented planning frameworks, arguing that true heritage sustainability in UNESCO sites depends on recognising resident agency. It concludes that governance must support community-led adaptation to prevent the ‘museumification’ of living settlements.
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