Navigating landscapes in transition: Development, Tourism and Heritage in Shan State, Myanmar

Abstract

After years of self-imposed and externally imposed isolation, Myanmar is now opening up to the outside world. The Myanmar government is looking to exploit opportunities arising from the growth in tourism, with a main aim of promoting growth in other sectors, during the early phase of the country’s democratisation process. This development is taking place at the intersection of two highly problematized processes of cultural, social and economic change – development and tourism. Discursive practices are explored throughout the thesis, with an aim of uncovering some of the mechanisms that can be said to constitute this part of Myanmar’s development. By exploring the strategies applied by both expatriate consultants and locally hired staff, the thesis aims at uncovering what space of agency the tourism development discourse offer different actors. Investigating how the perceived “universal” notion of heritage diverge and converge with local understandings of heritage as rooted in daily life, the thesis aims at revealing some of the knowledge practices engaged in a specific tourism development project.