“We love this place”: place attachment and community engagement in urban conservation planning

Conservation planning becomes signifi cant as globalisation and rapid urbanisation challenge the preservation of historical urban sites. As an integral part of communities’ place identities, the destruction of built heritage for development challenges local identities. Protecting built environment heritages can preserve local identity. Also, a paradigm shift in conservation planning supports including local perspectives and knowledge systems for sustainable urban conservation planning and democratic participation processes. Community engagement in urban conservation planning offers town planners insight into emotional values that communities attach to built heritages for incorporation in physical planning proposals. Emotional attachments are traditionally not considered as valid constructs in public participation. However, place attachments can propel communities to constructively participate in development processes if such developments strengthen their place identity, or prompt obstruction if communities perceive developments as threats to place identity. This research aims to explore communities’ place attachment through community engagement to inform urban conservation planning proposals. An action research approach was followed to explore place attachments associated with built heritage resources in two South African communities, Khuma and Stilfontein. The research indicates that specifi cally socio-economic, natural, and aesthetic place attachments assisted the communities to envision urban conservation proposals for future built environments for Khuma and Stilfontein that will be cherished. These proposals were unique for each community due to diff erent underlying place attachments. The implication of this research is that urban conservation should acknowledge communities’ place attachments, as they can optimise the fit between communitiesand urban conservation eff orts.