Exploring the challenges in protecting the identity of small historic towns in Malaysia

Purpose>Built heritage constitutes the uniqueness and identity of a place. While being overlooked in existing research, built heritage in small towns is increasingly threatened by dilapidation, exhaustion and disappearance. Therefore, this study aims to examine the challenges in protecting the un...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Open house international 2021-01, Vol.46 (1), p.64-80
Main Authors: Azmi, Nur Farhana, Ali, Azlan Shah, Ahmad, Faizah
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Community
Conservation
Cultural heritage
Economic growth
International
Local government
Qualitative analysis
Tourism
Towns
Uniqueness
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Summary:Purpose>Built heritage constitutes the uniqueness and identity of a place. While being overlooked in existing research, built heritage in small towns is increasingly threatened by dilapidation, exhaustion and disappearance. Therefore, this study aims to examine the challenges in protecting the unique features and identity of small towns with regard to building regulations, guidelines and policies.Design/methodology/approach>A semi-structured interview was conducted amongst a purposive sample of nine stakeholders from different organizations involved in heritage matters in Malaysia to investigate the issues and challenges facing the protection of small towns’ identity with regard to existing protection mechanisms impacting development of the towns. The data were then analyzed using the qualitative software package NVivo 8.0. The summary models imported from NVivo were created to visualize the connections between various dimensions of constructs, concepts and categories identified in the interviews.Findings>The study found that the current issues of built heritage protection at the local level can be classified into five emergent themes: legislative, institutional, economic, social and technical issues. While absence of specific guideline for identifying local cultural places has been identified as the most fundamental issues facing the protection of unique and distinct resources in small Malaysia towns, the paper concludes with a framework of measures that can then be used for identification and protection of small town identity.Originality/value>This study is the first of many fruitful contributions that examine heritage identification and protection mechanisms at the local level.
ISSN:0168-2601
2633-9838
DOI:10.1108/OHI-05-2020-0028