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The purpose of this paper is to analyse the role of a place’s name as the carrier of identity and heritage from the residents’ perspective. The authors assess the extent to which names of municipalities carry the place’s heritage, and how this can further be transferred to the place brand. The context is a situation in which a municipality changes its name, or is at the risk of doing so, as a result of municipal consolidation.

The authors conducted a large survey in the south-western Finland in spring 2013. The survey questionnaire was posted to 5,020 randomly selected residents, and the final sample comprised 1,380 recipients. The authors offer a framework for operationalising place heritage, comprising four components: history, place essence, symbols and residential permanence.

Most respondents attached importance to the name of their home town. The majority also felt that a name change would mean losing part of the place’s history. A strong place heritage proved to correlate positively with the importance of the municipality name.

The developed framework for place heritage can serve as a tool for place branding studies and practical place branding. A stable name has an essential role in branding places. The authorities should understand the crucial relationship between place name, heritage and identity, and their importance to the residents.

To the authors’ knowledge, this study is the first to report empirical research on the relation between place names and place branding from the heritage perspective.

The purpose of this paper is to identify the critical factors for enhancing social sustainability of the conservation of built heritage projects and to highlight the importance of addressing social sustainability in urban conservation.

First of all, a list of social sustainability factors is compiled from the international literature and then verified by a panel of experts in the field of heritage conservation and laymen through a pilot study in Hong Kong. Afterwards, through a questionnaire survey carried out in Hong Kong for an urban conservation project, the citizens' responses were obtained and evaluated. Results were derived from factor analysis.

The results indicated that social considerations should be incorporated for achieving social sustainability in urban heritage conservation. “Educational and local cultural promotion means”, “Meanings of the place”, “Social inclusion and psychological needs” and “Public participation and opportunity for skills development” were found to be the significant underlying factors for enhancing social sustainability of the case study project.

The underlying social factors found in this study can help enhance planning, management and implementation in conservation projects that should promote social well being in society.

The case study provides a valid basis for an interesting analysis on the relevance of the social sustainability aspects to an urban conservation project that also provides insights for other urban conservation projects of a similar nature. The factors identified can form an evaluation framework to measure the social sustainability level of a significant urban conservation and revitalization project in practice.

Sustainable development in support of cultural heritage has become one of the major issues on UNESCO’s agenda. As policy documents are issued, heritage environmental sustainability, local stakeholders’ development and participation and heritage in cases of interregional conflict are the situations they analyze. As such, policy documents will be employed as guidelines for past and future UNESCO World Heritage site registrations. They have been used for the present study of sustainable development within mostly Thai cultural heritage context, with a few cases relating to Cambodia due the lack of research on this topic in the region. Employing qualitative method analysis, most of the heritage sites studied here suffer from a lack of protection against encroachment, natural elements and, more rarely, overuse. Furthermore, the implementation of heritage management plans sees local stakeholders excluded from any participation in the heritage they live in, which may cause conflicts in Southeast Asia.

Iran, home to 22 World Heritage Sites in 2017, is blessed with an abundance of breathtaking scenery and a multitude of historic environments for tourists to enjoy. This exploratory chapter investigates tourists’ perceptions about the nature of heritage tourism in Iran, using the five most important cultural attractions as a starting point. A total of 25 photos and 60 reviews constitute the sample. The data were content-analyzed using a deductive and inductive procedure. The results show the relevance of sensory perceptions as a way of creating a bond with cultural heritage that should be considered in the future when defining a brand for Iran as a destination.

This study aims to examine whether there are significant differences between laymen's, professionals' and policy makers' evaluations of the conservation of historic buildings.

The research began with interview surveys using a sample of laymen and professionals in the built environment and it examined their evaluation standards of a sample of 25 historic buildings in Hong Kong. The research also used the controversial Queen's Pier case to examine the extent to which different preferences of conservation between laymen and professionals and policy makers has led to its conservation campaign.

The results indicate that laymen and professional groups evaluate historic buildings based on slightly different criteria. The research also reveals that their preference for what is worth conserving is different from policy makers. The debate over the conservation of the Queen's Pier illustrates a wide range of issues other than differences of preference that may have stimulated the campaign.

The sample size of the respondents and the sample buildings are limited due to manpower resource and funding. Further study can expand the sampling size.

The study is original research which illustrates the differences between laymen's, professionals' and policy makers' evaluation criteria and assessment of historic buildings. It recommends a greater understanding of all stakeholders' interests in heritage conservation and the incorporation of the public's view into legislative and administrative procedures in designating and listing historic buildings.

Historically, universities have been seen as places of excellence in research, with certain added teaching and educational functions. In Britain, though not in many other countries, there was seen little or no need to transfer that excellence out into the world outside nor for there to be much of a relationship between the universities and industry. So universities have been very relaxed about transferring their capabilities to the world outside — and the world outside has not been, until very recently too concerned about that. It may be helpful to spend a little time looking at that in greater depth.

The purpose of this paper is to explore how community involvement can support the authors who are guided by the following research questions: how do community residents contribute to heritage marketing strategies that represent their local area? How does community involvement in heritage marketing encourage place identification? How can organisations facilitate community participation in heritage marketing?

The authors draw on an ethnographic study of the adopted railway stations in Scotland. They use in-depth interviews and participant observation alongside visual and archival data.

The authors present and discuss three themes: community involvement in heritage activities, community heritage marketing and place identification, facilitating community participation through Adopt a Station.

Initiatives that empower residents should be prioritised to capitalise on their latent knowledge, skills and expertise. The authors suggest that bringing heritage outside the museum space into key places used by local residents will support the increased accessibility of heritage.

While there are often strong arguments in favour of local community involvement in place marketing, it is much less common to find successful reports of this working in practice. Research either questions the capabilities of local residents to make meaningful contributions or hints at a tokenistic form of involvement. The authors contribute by offering insights into successful heritage-based community activity. Unlike previous research which focuses on the economic impact of place marketing, this paper focuses on place identification for local residents. The authors also observe how offering a sense of ownership and freedom allows community management of the heritage message to flourish.