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Conserving urban cultural landscapes : a critical examination of social values in landuse planning decisions

Increased development pressure in inner city areas of many Australian and North
American cities has resulted in the loss of locally valued cultural landscapes.
Accompanying this process is palpable concern by local residents that their values have
not been taken into account. While architectural and historical values are well
recognised by heritage and planning practitioners, less tangible social values are often
ignored.
This thesis argues that a gap has formed between the process through which people
interact with place and the process of landuse planning. The aim of the research is to
critically examine this gap. Pyrmont and Ultimo, an inner city redevelopment area of
Sydney, provides a context of rapid social and physical change. Open-ended,
unstructured and semi-structured interviews with residents of Pyrmont and Ultimo, and
professionals involved in planning and development provide insight into perspectives
about the consideration of social values in landuse planning.
The results indicate that the loss of valued places may have physical and social
implications on people and place including loss of local character and identity,
increased conflict, resident anxiety and disillusionment with planning processes.
Residents and planners develop strategies for coping, but these do little to improve
limited information flow and understanding. Bridging the gap between the two
processes calls for a stronger link between heritage conservation and planning, in
addition to planning reform. The research suggests the need for formal landuse
planning to recognise the value of situational knowledge and social significance, rather
than rely on technical expertise and physical fabric. Efforts spent on refining methods
for identification and assessment of social value may be better directed towards
developing and improving methods for integrating the concept of social value into the
planning framework.

Identiferoai:union.ndltd.org:ADTP/219079
Date January 1999
CreatorsKaufman, Pamela E., n/a
PublisherUniversity of Canberra. Resource, Environmental & Heritage Sciences
Source SetsAustraliasian Digital Theses Program
LanguageEnglish
Detected LanguageEnglish
Rights), Copyright Pamela E. Kaufman

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