Utilizing co-design approach to identify various stakeholders’ roles in the protection of intangible place-making heritage

Abstract

Purpose The protection of traditional grassroots place-making knowledge and skills that comprise valuable intangible heritage has not been attracting enough attention in the field of post-disaster reconstruction and recovery. Based on the Guchengping Village’s reconstruction that followed the Lushan earthquake (Sichuan, China), the purpose of this paper is to identify the benefits of a co-design approach for post-disaster reconstruction and recovery, in order to ascertain various stakeholders’ contributions toward the protection of community-based intangible place-making heritage. Design/methodology/approach A qualitative method was employed to assist the professional designers in facilitating the co-design approach by bridging governments closer together with local communities. At the governmental level, focus groups and personal interviews were conducted to discover the government’s role in preserving the communities’ intangible heritage. At the community level, community-based workshops and family-based design partnerships engaged various community stakeholders to decipher their roles and contributions toward advancing the heritage age. Findings As the advocates of intangible heritage, all levels of government guaranteed that intangible heritage would be safeguarded in the government strategic plans. At the community level, local residents played a fundamental role as the grassroots protectors. Professional designers utilized cutting edge technologies to improve weaknesses found in the traditional knowledge and skills, by performing the protection in practice. Community-based service agencies promoted the value of heritage to address societal issues. Originality/value The co-design approach offered a new method of intangible heritage protection in post-disaster reconstruction and recovery by engaging different stakeholders, in order to effectively transfer the governmental strategic plans into community-based action plans, and in turn, enabled the grassroots voice to inform the government policies.

Resilience in Postdisaster Reconstruction of Human Settlement

“…All these dimensions are closely connected to and strongly influence one another. • Principle 4: Since disaster encompasses a cycle, the postdisaster response, reconstruction, and recovery from a particular disaster is the predisaster preparedness for the next one, which is essential for communities that are geographically located in hazard-prone zones (Wu & Hou, 2019). Building resilience is an ongoing process, involving long-term engagement between the local residents and their communities.…”

“…Research aims to guide practice as well as inform policy development and the decisionmaking process, especially in the hazards and disaster field (Wu & Hou, 2019). Implementing the field trip, which is a widely employed research approach in hazards and disaster research, can bring many benefits but largely depends on community-based support from local residents, agencies, and different levels of government (Tierney, 2007).…”

When Housing and Communities Were Delivered: A Case Study of Post-Wenchuan Earthquake Rural Reconstruction and Recovery

“…Furthermore, post-disaster initiatives are expected to comprehensively integrate social, economic, and other societal dimensions into the physical reconstruction phase [24]. When this expectation joins with community-driven situations, for example, fulfilling the disaster survivors' basic living requirements (e.g., access to housing, water, and electricity), the attention of STGLR is predominantly focused on physical aspects rather than intangible dimensions (e.g., social and cultural) [25].…”

“…Hence, new housing and communities are designed by the top-level decision-makers, namely government officials, real estate developers, policymakers, and other stakeholders, who might not live in the affected communities [43]. Neglecting the final beneficiary, failing to include disaster survivors in decision-making not only betrays social justice but also creates a scenario where new housing and communities are incongruent with disaster survivor needs and desires [44], establishing physical barriers to continued LTSLR [25]. Unfortunately, current research has not deeply examined how disaster survivors cope with these challenges, promoting LTSLR and achieving post-disaster sustainable development.…”

Preservation and Promotion of Intangible Cultural Heritage - A Participatory Design Approach

“…To relate Davidson's ladder to real-life participatory design projects, the first author of this article analysed five case studies from the literature concerning their participatory content as displayed in Figure 2. One case was from Egypt [10], two from Finland [11] [12], one from Norway [13], and one from China [14]. The role of a participatory designer in participatory projects is both facilitating the participants to engage in the research and creation process, and to use the designers' skill of envisioning and visualizing concepts and ideas.…”