Current works have focused on the role of urban heritage to sustainable development in postwar cities and have highlighted the significance of participatory and inclusive approaches that involve citizens and key stakeholders in the conservation and regeneration of heritage areas. However, this task is rather complex and challenging, especially in areas inhabited by multiple ethnic groups. Skills in negotiation and building trust are as important as skills in restoration and conservation of the physical fabric. However, the current literature lacks in-depth understandings of how negotiations in these contexts work and what we can learn from the past. The aim of this paper is to explore this issue by using a case study analysis, in particular, that of Kosovo. This paper looks at how the process developed during the implementation period of Annex V of the Comprehensive Proposal for the Kosovo Status Settlement (CSP) related to cultural heritage preservation. We analyze the sociocultural and political dynamics on the ground by focusing on Article 4 that deals with protective zones. With a critical examination of the approaches taken by stakeholders, including the public discourse and the example of the historic centre of Prizren, we suggest rethinking the implementation of Annex V as a sustainable option, rather than looking at other (beyond Annex V) alternatives that could potentially undermine the inter-community rebuilding efforts, and instead of creating the basis for sustainable cultural heritage preservation and reconciliation would eventually contribute to escalation and deepening of the conflict.
Since the armed conflict ended and during a decade of state building Kosovo has gone through substantial reforms required for its European Union integration. This was reflected into its built environment including the historic areas and cultural heritage preservation. Legislation, plans, policy documents and strategies foresee an all-inclusive and a balanced way of development. Practice, however, informs the opposite as the drafted documents are hardly implemented. This paper discusses and examines the mobility in a public space in the Historic Centre of Prizren in relation to the preservation of urban heritage. The paper reveals how the institutional (non)action and, the socio-cultural and political dynamics largely affect the implementation of preservation and planning documentation. Furthermore, the paper provides spatial analysis and suggests a mobility enhancement option aiming for a car-free area as basis for further research towards a sustainable solution for the implementation in practice.
It is widely acknowledged that reconciliation and sustainable development are processes that necessitate involvement from local, national and international actors. However, with the attention of international actors overwhelmingly focused on World Heritage sites, this chapter seeks to examine the potential consequences of the disparity in treatment between those sites on the World Heritage List and those that are not but are still significant for their local communities. Kosovo and Iraq are the two cases we use to explore the role, use and treatment of heritage in post-war recovery and reconciliation and how this is affected by World Heritage status. Through an examination of heritage as a political process, we can approach a more in-depth understanding of how heritage shapes and reshapes the politics of post-war memory, inter-community relations, and the extent to which the international community uses World Heritage in these communities to mandate their own politics of remembrance. We argue that heritage can have a “pacifying” role and contribute to peacebuilding, but this will need active, transformative actions from UNESCO which go beyond the Convention and, if possible, beyond politically influenced decision-making. This chapter seeks to fill a gap in the literature of how the local, national and international interact in the post-war environment, as well as the true impact of potential inequalities created by World Heritage.
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