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This paper aims to explore the possibilities of economic diversification in the State of Qatar through the regeneration of built heritage post the COVID-19 pandemic, promoting sustainable tourism and creating a center for cultural heritage in Qatar, thereby enhancing the sense of identity both socially and physically among the nationals and residents. In light of the strategic goals of the Qatar National Vision 2030, which is to diversify Qatar’s economy and minimize its reliance on hydrocarbon industries, if these ambitious goals are to be achieved, there is a necessity to maintain the local cultural identity, demonstrated through architecture and urbanism.

This study is an exploratory research based on qualitative methods of data gathering and investigation. The local communities who used to live in the scattered old villages were approached with surveys. At the same time, semi-structured interviews were conducted with professionals in the field in Qatar and other individuals from the public, depending on their literacy levels.

This paper examines how to revive those villages and improve their current economic level. Finally, the study proposes some recommendations for these abandoned villages in an attempt to rejuvenate their built heritage and revitalize their socioeconomic status.

Economic diversification needs to be engendered through the services and products of Qatari society; this is possible by exploiting current resources such as the built heritage or historic sites in areas outside the emerging metropolitan cities. This study reveals the great potential of regenerating the old villages of the Gulf States by establishing nonprofit organizations and increasing the economic benefit of the abandoned historic structures.

This paper aims to assess the proper built heritage preservation and management as important steps toward sustainability for the case of village Battir. In particular, the historic village core and its surroundings were elaborated. Battir is a Palestinian village located to the south of Jerusalem, famous for landscape terraces traditionally used in their authentic form since the Roman time. Because of its outstanding universal values, Battir was inscribed on the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) World Heritage list (WHL) in 2014.

To present the potentials of Battir to become a sustainable asset, the results of the Sustainable Plan have been used in this paper. Among the proposed strategies of the Plan methodology for the historic core conservation was emphasized. Referring to the same methodology, key findings about the current state of conservation are elaborated as well as proposals for the village core enhancements.

As a result of an on-site survey, the Plan outlines several strategies, which are summarized in this paper. Within each strategy, the role and benefits for the inhabitants are evaluated along with the overview of the proposed interventions for the historic tissue preservation.

Challenges of the village's heritage preservation have been elaborated under the comprehensive Sustainable Plan that was initiated, prepared and lead by International Peace and Cooperation Center (IPCC). Here, sustainability refers to the better managing of available natural and cultural resources and features, while at the same time, creating new socio-economic opportunities for inhabitants.

As a viable housing option for older people, retirement villages need to provide a sustainable living environment that satisfies their residents’ needs in terms of affordability, lifestyle and environmental friendliness. This is, however, a significant challenge for not-for-profit developers because of the high upfront costs involved in using sustainable practices. The purpose of this paper is to identify the sustainable features and practices adopted in not-for-profit retirement villages.

Because of the lack of quantitative historical data, a case study approach was adopted to identify the sustainable features and practices used in a not-for-profit retirement village in Sunshine Coast, Queensland, Australia. Data were collected based on interviews, direct observation and documentation, and collected data were analysed by using content analysis.

The research findings indicate that similar to private developers, not-for-profit developers also have the capability to make their village environment sustainable. In this case, the sustainable practices cover various aspects including the selection of village location, site planning, provision of facilities and services, social life and living costs. Although the associated costs of adopting sustainable features is a concern for both developers and residents, some of the identified sustainable practices in this case do not result in significant cost increase but can improve the residents’ quality of life substantially.

The research findings provide a number of practical implications on how to deliver sustainable retirement villages in a not-for-profit village setting.

This paper provides a first look at sustainable features and practices adopted in both the development and operation stages of a not-for-profit retirement village.

This study aims to explore the development of sustainability-oriented innovation (SOI) in the cultural village. SOI has recently generated widespread interest, both academically and practically, by factoring in environmental and social impacts in addition to economic aspects. However, previous works have mostly been performed at profit organisations, with few discussed at the non-profit, and likewise, in the cultural village.

This study uses a qualitative approach by focusing on a unique case, Laweyan Batik Village in Surakarta, Indonesia. Founded in the 15th century, Laweyan Batik Village remains the oldest batik village in Indonesia. Batik is the traditional fabric of Indonesia, influenced by Arabian, Chinese and European patterns, that was recognised in 2009 by UNESCO as part of the World's Intangible Cultural Heritage. The actor-network theory (ANT) is used as an analytical framework to understand the process of SOI development through the role of actors in developing innovations.

The findings suggest that, it is not only in mainstream business sectors and formal settings, as already evidenced by existing literature, that SOI can be promoted, but also in community sectors and within informal settings. This paper has found that the development of sustainability innovation in these settings is challenged by the dynamics of the actors and the institutional settings. The overall development process of sustainability innovation has been undertaken through so-called “collaborative practices”, emphasising the involvement of government actors and non-government actors, highlighting community leaders, academics and NGOs as the “in-between” actors who provide knowledge sharing and maintain communications to ensure the promotion of the SOI concepts and programmes.

This research contributes in two main ways: first, an understanding of the process of sustainability innovation in a cultural village that has not been deeply explored by current literature; and second, the use of the actor network theory as an analytical framework from which to map the process of SOI collaborative development through networking dimensions.

The well-being of the elderly is a growing issue of concern for countries around the world. One way to enhance the elderly well-being is to provide housing options suitable to their needs and lifestyle. Retirement village is an accommodation concept foreign to the Malaysian population. Therefore, the purpose of this paper is to bridge this literature gap by analyzing factors that may inhibit or motivate the buying intention of a retirement village unit among the elderly in Malaysia.

Data were collected from 261 Malaysian elderly and analyzed using structural equation modeling PLS.

The results indicated that attitude, subjective norm, perceived behavioral control and social sustainability were significant predictors that explained elderly buying intention of retirement village.

The study also found a significant moderating role of religion in attitude–intention relationship. The paper concludes with the study’s implications, limitations and recommendations for future research.

This paper explores some gendered impacts of resettlement in the Lesotho Highlands Water Project (LHWP). Based on 13 months of ethnographic fieldwork in Lesotho, Southern Africa, I use a feminist political ecology framework to analyze the ways host and settler communities negotiate development-induced resettlement and how resettlement conditions (re)produce gendered social interests in the context of the LHWP. While material losses are typically compensated during resettlement, the non-material, psycho-social aspects of loss do not get compensated. After resettlement, however, it is the unpaid, uncompensated community work of women that offers opportunities for adjustment into the new communities.

The concept of sustainable development is now widely accepted as a means of protecting natural resources and cultural heritage. One approach to ensuring sustainability, especially in relation to cultural tourism, is the ecomuseum. Turkey has considerable potential to develop ecomuseological models to encourage local sustainable development. The purpose of this paper is to explore the development of ecomuseums in Turkey by analysing the recent implementation of the concept in Hüsamettindere and Bogatepe villages. Current practices at these two sites are evaluated in comparison with the basic principles of ecomuseum theory.

This paper explores local community involvement in two emerging ecomuseums in Turkey based on several years of participant action research by the author; it describes the nature of the two ecomuseums based on that experience. In addition an in-depth survey was carried out between February and April 2013 by Canakkale Onsekiz Mart University when 45 local participants were interviewed for their views on the ecomuseum developments, using the MACDAB method (Borrelli et al., 2008) as a guide.

Even though the two implementations in Turkey have different features deriving from their local dynamics, they have had a similar experience in terms of the development process. Both began with a volunteer movement, the organisation of the local community, the formation of civil initiatives, a joint decision-making processes and the existence of participation and consensus. This process conforms to the basic principles of ecomuseology. The ecomuseums have also raised concerns about the loss of rural heritage and the mechanisms for conserving it within the model of the “living” ecomuseum. The most significant fact to emerge from this initial review of the two ecomuseums is that it is not necessarily their ability to conserve fragments of tangible and intangible heritage that is paramount in Turkey, but their importance in providing employment opportunities in rural areas.

Ecomuseum movement is a very important and practical model for sustainable development and tourism. Ecomuseums can also be functional tools for protecting of cultural heritage and developing of local areas. Even though Turkey has got many cultural heritage sources, they are not used productively for local sustainable development. The two implementations will be sample to all natural and cultural heritage areas of Turkey for sustainable development.

Does a village’s location in a regional economic system predict the extent to which close interpersonal relationships are based on socioeconomic similarity? A comparison of sample social networks of four frontier villages in northwest Ecuador showed that village centrality influences the dominant types of social relationships and, thus, the differential tendencies for socioeconomic differentiation. Compared to residents in peripheral villages, those in central ones were more likely to name individuals of their own class and to note mutual relations in their social networks.