IN-PERSON: Prague – Section A

Abstract

There has been a trend to include intangible heritage in global urban heritage management in recent years, and creative strategy has played an essential role in safeguarding intangible heritage (Landry, 2003; UNESCO, 2003; UNESCO Creative Cities Network, 2022). In China, creative strategies have been widely used in historical areas to foster economic development and at the same time ensure urban heritage conservation (Gu et al., 2020). However, the trade-off between economic development and urban conservation might lead to unsustainable outcomes, for example, over-exploitation of local cultural assets, property-led development, commercialization, and gentrification, and these side effects would harm the interests of creative actors and stakeholders in the community (Banks and O’Connor, 2009; Kong, 2014). In the end, the community would risk losing its source of creativity.
To pursue the long-term goal of sustainable development, community engagement is identified as a fundamental tool, which aims to involve more actors and the local community into the decision-making process to mitigate conflicts among stakeholders (Landorf, 2009). This research has adopted a case study approach. Through the in-depth study of creative placemaking in Wudadao, Tianjin, China, this study aims to understand the relationship between creative-led urban transformation and heritage conservation in China, and the politics of creative placemaking in Chinese urban historic areas, which include the role of civil society, and how different actors engage in this process. Finally, this research aims to assess whether the creative placemaking process in heritage sites has been beneficial for communities, and leading to social sustainability and inclusion in the context of China.