Participatory Management for Cultural Heritage: Social Media and Chinese Urban Landscape

Community participation plays a core role in sustainable urban development and inclusive cultural heritage management [1, 2]. Despite the broad attention on the World Heritage Property management in China, little research has been done on systematically reviewing the practices of community participation within Chinese cultural heritage, nor defining the role of social media played in it. To fill this research gap, this paper aims to explore how social media can contribute to community engagement and further influence sustainable cultural heritage management by providing a systematic literature review. Based on the evolving definition of community participation from the Historic Urban Landscape approach, this work starts with a review on the conceptualization of community participation. This article continues with a discussion on the role of the community played in participatory management. Following that, the argument is mainly concerning that social media is one of the vital tools to engage a wider range of audiences in conservation practices. To conclude, online urban heritage practices offer a platform for local citizens, especially grassroots, to collaborate with heritage institutions and professionals. Social media practices, such as mapping, may have a wider resonance when they combine broader communication and collaboration methods.