What's Wrong with Fakes? Heritage Reconstructions, Authenticity, and Democracy in Post-Disaster Recoveries

Natural and human disasters continue to destroy historic urban fabrics worldwide. While residents would often like to see their cities rebuilt "as they were," most scholars of heritage fiercely reject identical reconstructions by arguing either that they are "fake" simulations, or that they epitomize undemocratic urbanization processes. Challenging these arguments, I first draw from literature on theming to argue that it is precisely "fakeness" that allows people to construct a sense of authenticity in rebuilt urban spaces. Next, I show how preoccupations with participation and justice can paradoxically lead professionals to advance the same universalistic, undemocratic heritage approach that they claim to contest. By enabling diverse people to negotiate a sense of the past, confront each other, and share new aspirations for the future, identical reconstructionsareheritage as much as, if not more than, other "historic" urban fabrics.