Security and heritage: alignments and interactions of two global leitmotivs
Description

‘Security’ and ‘heritage’ constitute prominent but distinct research topics in anthropology. Scholars have demonstrated that security and heritage respectively are produced by historical, social and political contexts and forces. At the same time, both are individually productive of new socio-spatial formations, inasmuch as they both transform places and ways in which people relate to them. Their realms are deeply affective. Yet questions about the similar functioning of these two phenomena, and ways in which they may be co-produced and co-productive, remain to date almost unexplored. This project aims to unpack and theorise for the first time heritage and security as interconnected imaginaries and cross-fertilising processes that affect the everyday life of cities and citizens. It begins by undertaking an intensive anthropological analysis of a specific urban setting in north India—the historic centre of Varanasi/Banaras—where matters of security and heritage are pervasive. However, the wider aim of the project is to open up a new avenue of research and foster broader comparisons with other urban settings in South Asia and beyond.

Internal Partners
Research Centre Research Group Role in Project Begin Date End Date
CRIA-Iscte Research Group Circulation and Place-Making Leader 2021-10-01 2027-09-30
External Partners

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Project Team
Name Affiliation Role in Project Begin Date End Date
Vera Lazzaretti Professora Auxiliar Convidada (DA); Integrated Researcher (CRIA-Iscte); Global Coordinator 2021-10-01 2027-09-30
Project Fundings
Reference/Code Funding DOI Funding Type Funding Program Funding Amount (Global) Funding Amount (Local) Begin Date End Date
2020.02275.CEECIND/CP1634/CT0001 -- Contract FCT - CEECIND Inv. Auxiliar Inv. Auxiliar 2021-10-01 2027-09-30
Publication Outputs
Year Publication Type Full Reference
2026 Scientific journal paper Lazzaretti, V. (2026). Security and heritage in the making of urban futures: A new research avenue. Ethnography, 27(3), 781?801. https://doi.org/10.1177/14661381241266918
2026 Scientific journal paper Lazzaretti, V. (2026). The afterlives of repatriation: Heritage, emancipation and violence in Hindu nationalist India. International Journal of Heritage Studies, 32(2), 189?214. https://doi.org/10.1080/13527258.2025.2496881
2025 Book chapter Lazzaretti, V. (2025). Paix et insécurité à Bénarès : Les effets paradoxaux du maintien de lʼordre dans les lieux de culte interreligieux. In Julien Jugand et Tiziana Leucci (Ed.), Mémoire de Bénarès : Territoires, religiosités, controverses (pp. 159?182). EHESS. Ecole des hautes études en sciences sociales.
2024 Scientific journal paper Lazzaretti, V. (2024). Ayodhya 2.0 in Banaras? Judicial discourses and rituals of place in the making of Hindu majoritarianism. Contemporary South Asia, 32(1), 66?83. https://doi.org/10.1080/09584935.2023.2188173
2024 Scientific journal paper Lazzaretti, V. & Jacobsen, K. A. (2024). Jurisprudence and geography of Hindu majoritarianism: Thinking with the 2019 Ayodhya judgement. Contemporary South Asia, 32(1), 1?9. https://doi.org/10.1080/09584935.2023.2301545
2023 Recensions in journals Lazzaretti, V. (2023). Review of Composing Violence: The Limits of Exposure and the Making of Minorities (2023) by Moyukh Chatterjee. Religion and Society, 14(1). https://doi.org/10.3167/arrs.2023.140115
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With the objective to increase the research activity directed towards the achievement of the United Nations 2030 Sustainable Development Goals, the possibility of associating scientific projects with the Sustainable Development Goals is now available in Ciência_Iscte. These are the Sustainable Development Goals identified for this project. For more detailed information on the Sustainable Development Goals, click here.

Security and heritage: alignments and interactions of two global leitmotivs
2021-10-01
2027-09-30