Towards a Participatory Approach to Cultural Heritage Management Insights from Chinese Practices

This book advances the understanding and process of community participation in cultural heritage management within the Chinese context of rapidly urbanising development. Results show that Chinese community participation in cultural heritage management has yet to find a firm foothold. Based on local contextual characteristics, it needs to develop a balanced methodology of both top-down and bottom-up processes to more directly include the needs, interests and dreams of residents and better face the challenges of Chinese rapid urbanisation.

Introduction current international approaches to heritage value identification and protection.- Chinese contextual community participation from a global perspective state of the art.- Community participation assessment of UNESCO World Heritage state of the practice in China.- Urban morphological transformation and community development after Lijiangs inscription as World Heritage.- Community building and participation degree in the Old Town of Lijiang.- Chapter 6 Participatory identification and management of historic urban landscape through IMAGINE Workshops in the Old Town of Lijiang.- Living heritage community resilience building in post earthquake Jiuzhaigou Valley.- Conclusion.

Dr. Ji Li, trained as an architect, holds a Ph.D. in Urbanism and Urban Architecture from Eindhoven University of Technology (Netherlands, 2021), a Master’s in Architectural Design and Theory (China, 2017), and a Bachelor of Architecture (China, 2014). Prior to his current role as Associate Professor at SWJTU’s School of Architecture, he conducted doctoral research at TU Eindhoven focused on community participation in World Heritage management. Dr. Li brings extensive research experience from leading heritage institutions, including the UNESCO World Heritage Centre, the Conservation and Management Bureau of World Heritage Lijiang Old Town, and the Lijiang Old Town Academy of Cultural Heritage. He has published over 20 articles in prominent journals such as Cities, Habitat International, and Frontiers of Architectural Research, covering heritage protection, public participation, and historic urban landscapes.