Heritage Statecraft and Corporate Power - Altai Activism in Post-Soviet Siberia

Heritage Statecraft and Corporate Power examines the politicization of heritage and heritage conflicts in Siberia. In so doing, it challenges the idea that heritage is created by the state and instead argues that heritage creates the state.

List of contents

Introduction; Part I: Theorizing heritage statecraft and setting the stage; Chapter 1: Heritage Statecraft; Chapter 2: Statecraft in Soviet and post-Soviet Altai: Regionalism and social engineering; Part II: She's Gone; Chapter 3: The sourdough rises and the discovery of the Altai Princess; Chapter 4: Monumental history in the time of Putin; Part III: She's back ... with a vengeance?; Chapter 5: Repatriation: A doxa breaker?; Chapter 6: Negotiating state systems: Repatriating to acquire a social license to operate; Chapter 7: Instilling state ideas: Promising pipelines and changing environmental discourses; Chapter 8: Exceptions to authoritarianism: Post-repatriation political climates; Conclusion

About the author

Gertjan Plets is an Associate Professor in Heritage Studies and Cultural History at Utrecht University, the Netherlands. In his work, he uses heritage as a lens to explore cultural politics and statecraft. He especially studies how museums and cultural property are mobilized in regions politically shaped by the energy sector (gas, oil, and mining) and how the past is used to normalize energy discourses and futures. In his work, he draws on his extensive ethnographic research in the Altai Republic (Russia) and Groningen (the Netherlands).

Product details

• Authors: Gertjan Plets
• Publisher: Taylor & Francis Ltd.
• Languages: English
• Product format: Paperback / Softback
• Released: 06.05.2025
• EAN: 9781032642178
• ISBN: 978-1-0-3264217-8
• No. of pages: 214
• Series: Routledge Studies in Heritage
• Subjects: Humanities, art, music > History > General, dictionaries; Natural sciences, medicine, IT, technology > Geosciences > Geography; Eastern Europe, SOCIAL SCIENCE / Archaeology, Regional Studies, Regional / International studies, Archaeology by period / region, Museology & heritage studies, Museology and heritage studies