Picturing a Common ‘Homeland’: Identifying, Mapping and Managing Diasporic Heritage through Community Participation

Diasporic heritage is the heritage created by diaspora communities through the process of dispersion in complex historical or political contexts. Its management is faced with complex issues, such as unclear heritage values and attributes, and conflicts among present and absent

stakeholders. This PhD proposal will investigate diasporic heritage from a cross-cultural perspective, treating it as a transnational cultural process, and hope to understand how diasporic heritage and stakeholders can be identified, mapped and managed under the HUL framework through community participation, considering 2 comparative cases. The expected outcome of this study is a literature review, a cultural mapping database of diasporic heritage, a comparative framework between twin cases from the same diaspora community in their homeland and new settlement, and a workflow for identifying and managing change in diasporic heritage including key indicators. This study will test and enhance the Recommendation on the Historic Urban Landscape (HUL) approach’s implementation in a diasporic background, and will develop community participation methods in mapping and managing change in diasporic heritage.