OWHC Living Heritage – Participatory practices in heritage management in World Heritage cities

Community engagement is today a goal of heritage management, advocated to foster the sustainable development of local communities. It is increasingly integrated in international policies and recommendations, while the amount of academic and professional publications is growing, presenting specific case studies from different world regions.

These studies provide valuable data, but little attempts have been made to compare them, disabling local governments and heritage professionals to learn from best practices and collaborate worldwide, as well as, models and trends to be identified. This research seeks to reveal how local governments managing World Heritage cities today perceive the participation of different stakeholders in the management of World Heritage properties.

The participants to the Organisation of World Heritage Cities 14^th World Congress were invited to contribute by filling in a pre-congress online survey on past, present and future practices in their cities. Moreover, attending Mayors worked together in a workshop to draw a SWOT analysis of community engagement practices in their cities, highlighting trends and differences on a global level.

Research results can inform recommendations and facilitate work for the implementation of participatory practices, both globally and locally, academic- and practitioner-led, to further develop, test and evaluate models for participation in heritage management.

 

Ilaria Rosetti, Research Assistant

Email: ilaria.rosetti@hotmail.com

Eindhoven University of Technology (TU/e), The Netherlands