From living heritage values to value-based policymaking: exploring new indicators for Abu Dhabi’s sustainable development

Document Type

Article

Source of Publication

Humanities and Social Sciences Communications

Publication Date

12-1-2024

Abstract

This exploratory study offers an analysis of Abu Dhabi’s living heritage ecosystem. It borrows from approaches predominantly used in the healthcare field and develops a value-based framework that provides a broader understanding of heritage and its integration into innovation, economic development, and societal change in Abu Dhabi. This framework includes three steps: (1) identification of the individual heritage values (‘heritage drivers’) through ethnographic interviews; (2) aggregation of the dynamics impacting the practical realization of these values and relative identification of value-based policymaking areas; and (3) suggestion of an approach that builds indicators to assess the impact of living heritage policies contributing to the achievement of the UN SDGs and their relevance to grassroots ‘heritage drivers’. This study also addresses the existing methodological gap in qualitative surveys focusing on Abu Dhabi’s cultural landscape, which is characterized by ongoing transformations. The UAE’s current social, economic, and political conditions continuously shape Abu Dhabi’s approach to using its rich tangible and intangible heritage as a catalyst for new articulations between the ‘local’ and the ‘global’. Even if the epistemological approach suggested in this paper is far from exhaustive, the interdisciplinary aspect of this research has practical implications that may be useful for international researchers and policymakers working in a variety of fields.

ISSN

2662-9992

Publisher

Springer Science and Business Media LLC

Volume

11

Issue

1

Disciplines

Social and Behavioral Sciences

Scopus ID

85205964478

Indexed in Scopus

yes

Open Access

yes

Open Access Type

Gold: This publication is openly available in an open access journal/series

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