Authorized heritage discourse and community agency: the uneven dynamics of heritagization in Vietnam

Purpose This article examines how heritagization in Vietnam reconfigures community agency through the lens of authorized heritage discourse (AHD). It does this by analyzing two heritage domains and three local configurations using information collected through qualitative research conducted between 2015 and 2024. These include: (1) Đường Lâm Ancient Village as a case of living built heritage, (2) Bắc Lệ Temple as a site of Mother Goddess worship under local administrative management and (3) Dầy Palace (known as Phủ Dầy in Vietnamese and from here on in this paper) as a ritual center where practitioners and spirit mediums mobilize heritage recognition to assert religious and cultural legitimacy. This paper argues that, in these three cases, heritagization does not uniformly result in community marginalization. Rather, it generates regulatory displacement in Đường Lâm, nominal participation at Bắc Lệ, and tactical empowerment at Phủ Dầy. By distinguishing community participation from community agency, this study contributes to critical heritage and Vietnam studies by demonstrating how heritage regimes may constrain, formalize or enable different forms of local agency in diverse Vietnamese settings. Design/methodology/approach Qualitative, multi-sited study combining participant observation and in-depth interviews with spirit mediums, residents, site managers and cultural officials, complemented by policy/document analysis. Discourse analysis operationalizes AHD to trace how legal frameworks, Site Management Boards (SMBs), and UNESCO inscription mediate authority and participation. Comparative case design contrasts intangible (Mother Goddesses at Bắc Lệ and Dầy Palace) and tangible (Đường Lâm built heritage of ancient houses) heritage to identify mechanisms that marginalize or empower communities. Findings Heritagization in Vietnam is heterogeneous yet consistently centralized. SMBs and layered legal-administrative regimes reallocate decision rights upward, narrowing community voice. At Bắc Lệ, institutional authority displaces practitioners; at Dầy Palace, adherents mobilize inscription to defend ritual space. In Đường Lâm, authenticity-driven restrictions impede everyday life, fueling conflict over repairs, housing, and tourism revenue. UNESCO inscription functions ambivalently – as compliance lever for authorities and ‘soft power’ for practitioners – producing uneven agency across sites. Research limitations/implications Extends AHD by showing how socialist governance and multi-level administrative hierarchies shape discourse, authority and participation. Introduces two comparative heuristics – “regime/agency gaps” and “inscription effects” – for analyzing community voice under listing regimes. Points to the need for longitudinal, cross-site studies linking Intangible Cultural Heritage (ICH) and built heritage, and for mixed methods that integrate ethnography with institutional analysis to capture dynamic, place-contingent heritagization. Practical implications Recommend co-management frameworks that seat practitioners/residents on SMBs with voting power, participatory rule-making, transparent restoration and ticketing/revenue-sharing protocols, livelihood-sensitive safeguards that allow adaptive repairs and conflict-resolution mechanisms. Training for officials and mediators should emphasize dialogic governance and cultural rights. Originality/value Bridges ICH and built-heritage governance within a single AHD-informed, Vietnam-based comparative ethnography. Provides empirically grounded evidence of how inscription simultaneously constrains and empowers, moving beyond binary “state vs community” framings.