Participatory Culture and the Social Value of an Architectural Icon

This is an important and timely book that proposes novel ways of understanding social value, identity and engagement with world heritage sites in the digitally mediated age. It will undoubtedly progress thinking and practice on the conception, representation and management of heritage. Hannah Lewi, Professor Architecture, University of Melbourne, Australia Focusing on the Sydney Opera House, Cristina Garduno Freeman's first monograph explores the persistent issue of 'social value'. In addition to providing a sustained exploration of heritage engagements within the context of the Opera House, her book also makes astute observations that are transferable well beyond those specifics, offering fresh empirical evidence and insight into the emerging relationships between heritage, online technologies and their associated modes of communication. The result is a strongly theorized monograph that will no doubt make an impactful and important contribution to the literatures supporting heritage and conservation studies. Emma Waterton, Associate Professor, Western Sydney University, Australia In this ground-breaking study, Cristina Garduno Freeman builds on thousands of images of homewares, toys, jewellery, drawings, paintings, cartoons, logos, souvenirs, maps, films, performances, events, visual analogies, archival material and even other buildings, all associated in some way with the Sydney Opera House. In doing this she produces an absorbing and visually exciting account of the impact of the Opera House in Australia and globally, and adds an important new dimension to the rapidly growing literatures on iconic architecture and the heritage industry. Leslie Sklair, Emeritus Professor of Sociology, London School of Economics, UK Participatory Culture and the Social Value of an Architectural Icon is, quite simply, groundbreaking. Rigorously incorporating media, cultural and memory studies' approaches, Cristina Garduno Freeman explores the socio-visual value of Sydney Opera House as it circulates through the participatory media and practices of varied audience-communities. Addressing relational, temporal and embodied aspects of architecture's global 'iconomy', Garduno Freeman critically challenges established definitions of World Heritage. What does it really mean to be a 'world-famous iconic building' in the age of social media? This book will tell you. Professor Matt Hills, co-director of the Centre for Participatory Culture, University of Huddersfield, UK