Paper short abstract:

This paper explores relations between agency, leisure practices, and processes of spatial appropriation of sites. Drawing from ethnographic research in Malacca (West Malaysia), I discuss the social construction and appropriation of space in Kampung Portugis, an urban neighborhood located in the city’s coastal area.

Paper long abstract:

Based on fieldwork in progress (2006 to 2008), this paper addresses the problem of place identities and appropriation of space in Kampung Portugis, a tourist-oriented neighbourhood facing the Straits of Malacca. Planned under colonial rule (as a low-income residential area for the minority group of Portuguese-Eurasians), Kampung Portugis has also become, in post-Colonial Malaysia, a Gazetted Heritage Site. Due to the agency of multiple actors, this spatial and symbolic appropriation for tourism and leisure purposes has been followed by a land reclamation process of the seashore, in line with the urban growth policies in the region.

In the national context, celebrating the 50th anniversary of Independence in 2007, Malaysian government launched a tourism campaign (entitled «Malaysia, truly Asia»). Among the discursive politics of representation, underlying this campaign was the multicultural context of the country, within which Malacca's Portuguese Settlement was also represented. Locally, however, the opening of a Government-owned Hotel (named after the Portuguese capital, Lisbon) has given rise to open contestation and debates over ownership and appropriation of public space. Located near the symbolic centre of community gatherings, the Hotel is perceived as a space of alterity. Using a constructivist approach, some of social and rhetorical aspects of this spatial transformation are discussed here, focusing on the role public space plays, within process of imagining local (as well as national) cultures.