Community Participation and the Tangible and Intangible Values of Urban Heritage

The role of local communities in sustainable development was underscored for the 40th anniversary of the World Heritage Convention, addressing the challenges notably in changing urban patterns, especially those affected through increasing demographic and development pressures. The article outlines the changing characteristics of urban communities and the need for a relevant vocabulary, a lingua franca, for debating their role. Our understanding of community and stakeholders has expanded in time, place, and space through the technological revolution to include virtual dimensions of our society. The new roles of communities redefine identities for social grouping based on a range of values and array of interpretations. The city no longer belongs solely to those who “created it” but now hosts migrant communities reinterpreting its original value, through their own eyes; concepts of resurrection or reincarnation in a new life for old cities. Urban attributes that are tests of authenticity and integrity need to be reviewed opening up a wider acceptance of “the other”; the kabalistic tzimtzum and Japanese Ma can create mental and urban spaces. The UNESCO Recommendation on Historic Urban Landscapes calls for new tools allowing for the translation of ideas to reach a consensus for urban living rather than the single narrative.