Decolonizing Heritage: Critical Perspectives on Sustainability through a Cultural Studies Lens

This article explores the intersection between critical heritage studies, decolonial epistemologies and sustainability through the analytical lens of cultural studies, with particular emphasis on Stuart Hall’s theoretical contributions. We argue that traditional heritage discourse, dominated by Western frameworks, perpetuates colonial power relations that marginalize local communities and knowledge systems while failing to address contemporary sustainability challenges. The “authorized heritage discourse” privileges expert knowledge over community autonomy, commodifies living cultures for tourism consumption and maintains institutional structures that exclude marginalized voices from heritage decision-making. Drawing extensively on Stuart Hall’s cultural theory – particularly his concepts of culture as a contested terrain, representation politics and post-national identity formation – we discuss alternative frameworks for heritage understanding that validate diverse knowledge systems and support community self-determination. Hall’s analysis of cultural hegemony and hybrid identity formation provides essential tools for understanding how heritage operates as a site of struggle between dominant and subordinate groups. We integrate these insights with decolonial epistemologies, examining how concepts including cognitive justice, epistemic reconstitution and frontier thinking provide practical methodologies for creating more equitable heritage alternatives. The article demonstrates how cultural studies methodologies, including conjunctural analysis and participatory ethnography, enable the operationalization of decolonial insights through radical inclusivity and democratic cultural practice. Central to our analysis is Hall’s political economy of culture, which provides frameworks for understanding heritage commodification while developing community-controlled heritage economies as democratic alternatives. The integration of environmental justice analysis with cultural studies reveals how memory and traditional ecological knowledge offer integrated approaches to cultural and environmental sustainability. Inspired by William’s vision of “the long revolution” toward democratic social transformation, we conclude that decolonizing heritage requires coordinated transformation across governance structures, economic models and pedagogical approaches. The theoretical framework developed provides roadmaps for heritage institutions to contribute to social justice and sustainable development while supporting community empowerment and cultural sovereignty.