The Value of Others: Modern Heritage and Historiographic Inequity

Abstract

Inspired by growing calls for the equitable recognition of other experiences—especially non-white and non-western—in the historiography of the modern era, this paper explores the themes of transnational architectural practice and cosmopolitanism through the lens of cultural heritage—specifically modern heritage—and how values are ascribed, invariably asymmetrically, to the tangible and intangible legacies of our recent past. In deference to the theme of Cosmopolitanism’s Others, the paper argues for equitable histories not merely as an intellectual exercise, but as a prerequisite to attaining just and sustainable futures. One small step in this direction is the formulation of The Cape Town Document on Modern Heritage (2022) under the auspices of the global collaborative, MoHoA (Modern Heritage of Africa/Modern Heritage in the Anthropocene), a decentring and restitutive framework for an equitable and sustainable approach to the theory and practice of modern heritage in a planetary age.