ABSTRACT
In 2008, Melaka was granted UNESCO heritage status owing to its unique cosmopolitan heritage. While the UNESCO status has provided protection to the city’s historical core, the heritage of local communities located outside the heritage (buffer) zone has fallen out of category—and protection—making it vulnerable to a redevelopment of the city. Catering to demands of the tourism industry and fitting into national heritage narratives, the heritage is being (re)constructed along lines of colonial stereotypes, endangering the vernacular cosmopolitanism. Cross reading Durkheim’s social solidarity with literature on cosmopolitanism, I argue that vernacular cosmopolitanism can unfold in local networks, suggesting that the local and the cosmopolitan are not mutually exclusive.
