1. Introduction
Since the 1972 adoption of the Convention Concerning the Protection of the World Cultural and Natural Heritage, scholars in many countries have recognized and discussed the importance of cultural landscapes, including their geographical, historical, and sociological aspects [
1]. In 2008, UNESCO clearly defined cultural landscapes as those that “are part of the natural and cultural heritage of the world” [
2]. In this context, the term is used in the fields of geography, ecology, and heritage studies to describe the existence of symbiosis between human activities and the environment. According to the World Heritage Committee, such a landscape is “a cultural property that represents a complex work of nature and human creation” [
2]. To date, most relevant studies have focused on natural and historical heritage in the traditional sense [
3]. However, recent progress in urban modernization has influenced more scholars to investigate urban cultural landscapes. In November 2011, UNESCO published the Recommendation on the Historic Urban Landscape [
4], wherein such landscapes are described as replacing the heritage of buildings and building groups within a city, with a unified view of the entire environment as urban heritage in the context of dynamic urban development. This provides a better conservation framework that incorporates a landscape perspective and heritage preservation as a means and method under broader urban development. In this research, urban heritage is understood as urban areas that extend beyond the concept of “historic centers” or “groups” to include a broader urban context and its geography, and which result from the historical accumulation of cultural and natural values and characteristics [
4]. At the same time, there is growing acceptance that urban heritage is an important element of social capital and that heritage conservation provides economic, cultural, and social benefits to urban communities, and may contribute to a more sustainable urban environment [
5,
6].
The Recommendation on the Historic Urban Landscape also mentions social participation, identifies the important values of urban areas, and discusses diversity. In this regard, it advocates for a vision that reflects diversity, sets goals, promotes the protection of heritage, and encourages sustainable development. In other words, we can identify a shift from the perspective in which “historical heritage” is seen from afar to one that is focused on self-discovery and active preservation through citizen involvement. This view will help people understand the origins of their culture and why it should be preserved, thus promoting a place identity and pride. History not only carries the memory of urban development, which allows it to exist in the past, but also brings it to life in the present, such that it is integrated into daily life. This calls for sustainable preservation and development.
Since the European Landscape Convention was approved in 2000 [
7], social participation has become one of landscape’s defining concepts, providing opportunities for the public, stake-holder groups, experts, and decision-making officials to express preferences, share information and knowledge, debate, persuade, and learn [
8]. During the same period, community-development activities were conducted throughout Japan, with support for various forms of participation among residents [
9]. Mahdavinejad et al. [
10] studied public participation in recent urban planning and renovation projects in Iran. Amersfoort Local Municipality implemented the workbench spatial-quality method to enhance participation in green-planning processes [
11]. Donagh Horgan et al. [
12] focused on tools and technologies used for participatory processes in sustainable urban planning. Other scholars also discussed the importance of public participation in landscape conservation and community development [
13,
14,
15,
16,
17,
18] and many countries continue to demonstrate insufficient social participation in urban-heritage conservation [
19,
20,
21]. In fact, many people do not even realize that opportunities exist for them to participate in such endeavors [
22]. According to Mihaylov and Perkins [
23], acceptable levels of interaction lead to “neighborhood relations, social participation, and ultimately community mobilization and collective action,” thus increasing the “implementation of community revitalization or development”. These studies collectively demonstrate the importance of researching social participation and enhancing awareness. As such, this study employed a linear regression model to investigate influencing factors in the relationship between social-participation awareness and urban-heritage conservation, with the ultimate aim of finding suitable methods to enhance social-participation awareness.
4. Discussion and Conclusions
In Suzhou, H1 was unsupported, and the greatest influence on place identity was public space (0.376), where places and meanings embedded in existing social and cultural settings had been transformed through urban regeneration [
57]. According to Gospodini’s [
58] study of European cities, public space contributes to place identity, creating experimental new types of public space both enhancing place identity and promoting economic development of cities. This is also consistent with the results of this study. Public spaces tend to evoke place identity. For example, the traditional Suzhou gardens are both a source of urban heritage and a unique public space that represents the habits of residents, reflects local human relations, and exemplifies the strong character of the daily life environment [
54]. Interestingly, we also found higher values for social-participation awareness and its various influencing factors in the old area when compared to the new urban area. The traditional Suzhou gardens still exist as fee-paying attractions. Most are located in the old area, which explains why place identity is stronger among its residents. As a common source of heritage for all Suzhou people, the Suzhou traditional gardens should abolish fees to increase public awareness, allow easier access, and create more space for local people to communicate. Urban heritage and cultural values are preserved and promoted when individuals develop a place identity with them. A strong sense of local identity facilitates the establishment of sustainable development models, as sustainable development is often based on the promotion of local identity [
59].
At the same time, efforts should be made to enhance community sentiment by regular community activities (such as local history/cultural lectures, community cleanups, etc.) to shape a strong place identity, thus increasing local social-participation awareness. It is important to note that in multicultural countries such as America, community activities should respect different cultures, otherwise they may be counterproductive [
60]. Pretty [
61] believes that individual and shared community sentiments contribute to residents’ intention to stay in their town, which is an acceptable place in which to situate their sense of self.
Furthermore, as shown in
Table 4, Engel’s coefficient had a significantly lower influence on place identity when compared to other factors in Suzhou, which is a side indication that income barely affects social-participation awareness in the context of urban-heritage conservation. This may be due to the fact that Suzhou is an economically developed city and people do not experience problems with food and clothing, which may be different in some third-world countries.
With respect to the aspect of urban memory, H2 was supported and lifestyle transformation had the greatest impact. Since China’s reform and opening up, rapid economic development has induced dramatic life changes for residents. However, those living in the same original communities have developed a common understanding, and are thoroughly aware of each other’s habits due to long periods of coexistence [
62]. This form of mutual understanding is only achieved after a long time, and is very difficult to change. However, if the quantitative model of this study is applied to other countries with highly accomplished urbanization, lifestyle transformation may be less pronounced.
The average value of urban events was significantly higher in the old area of Suzhou when compared to the new urban area. This is likely because most traditional events (e.g., dragon-boat races and temple fairs) are held in the old area. More events should be considered in the new urban context. Combining the influences of lifestyle transformation, urban activities, and urban transformation on urban memory, we found that individual personal experiences had a stronger influence on urban memory, while transformations in the objective environment had a weaker influence. In addition to city events, this suggests that community development, local cultural lectures, and other experiential activities can also enhance urban memory. Ishimori [
63] found that many people who experience community development begin to look forward to the next instance, possibly due to an increased sense of local pride inspired by such events. Moreover, the length of residence positively affected place identity and urban memory; in other words, the longer people live in a given place, the greater their social-participation awareness. In this regard, residents in Suzhou’s older areas have lived in the city longer than those in new urban areas, which has strengthened their place identity and urban memory.
Although subjective cognition and objective knowledge had weaker impacts than place identity and urban memory (
Table 9), our cluster analysis showed a difference of 0.49 between the high and low subjective-cognition groups, as well as a difference of 0.71 between the high and low objective-knowledge groups. Thus, social-participation awareness significantly differed between groups (
Table 7 and
Table 8). These findings suggest that both subjective cognition and objective knowledge can strongly improve participation awareness in Suzhou. In addition, this supports Takase and Dorothea, who found that enhanced cognition could increase social-participation awareness in conversation activities [
64,
65]. However, Shirayanagi et al. [
66] noted that too much objective knowledge may negatively impact social-participation awareness, although this did not occur in this study. This may be due to differences in the study sample, as Shirayanagi’s [
66] research was conducted in the Japanese context, while this study surveyed Chinese respondents. To explain further, individuals who reside in different countries often have differences in thinking, basic education, and living environments. In this regard, the current study model will likely produce different results when applied to other areas.
Wang’s [
67] study using the political analysis framework of “general will–particular will”, proposed that coordination between the cognitive level and the practical level is key to evaluating the level of public participation in participatory video intervention in urban planning. Pawlewicz [
68] evaluated public participation in the rural municipalities of the Region of Warmia and Mazury and to analyze the influence of different participation categories, which describe local residents’ involvement in public affairs on the four levels of public participation: public action, public involvement, electoral participation, and obligatory participation. In contrast, this study provides a quantitative model of social-participation awareness of urban-heritage conservation. allowing a more objective determination of whether factors influence participation awareness and analysis of the magnitude of its influence. In a practical sense, experts can use this model to expand the possible influencing factors according to different regions (e.g., adding religious factors in countries with different faiths and adding identification with different cultures in multicultural countries), conduct surveys to quickly find the most influential factors, develop targeted policies based on the results, and increase the local social-participation awareness of urban-heritage conservation, thus promoting conservation efforts.
Focusing on conditions in Suzhou, H3 was supported and this study found that social-participation awareness affected urban-heritage conservation through positive correlations with place identity, urban memory, subjective cognition, and objective knowledge. Of these factors, place identity had the strongest impact, while the objective knowledge about local history had the weakest. From this perspective, enhancing place identity is the best way to increase social-participation awareness among residents of Suzhou.
This study also had some limitations, as we did not consider all known factors that may affect social-participation awareness about urban-heritage conservation. In order to mitigate the limitations present in the article and improve the effectiveness of the analysis developed, the authors plan to employ the following lines of future research: (1) Make more questionnaires and consider more impact factors such as the social status of the residents (gender, residency, age, etc.). (2) Establish a public evaluation system for existing urban-heritage conservation efforts, as satisfaction with existing efforts may also influence public awareness.