Community dynamics of public space management and abandonment

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Public spaces serve as places to gather, remember past events, and mark the legacy of influential individuals. The location and care of these spaces informs notions of community heritage, identity, and outlook because, together, these traits play key roles in how community spaces are managed. This project investigates the processes that lead to the preservation versus abandonment of an important type of public space, cemeteries, which can mark strong community meaning. They can be important ways to remember our war heroes, our leaders, our ancestors, as well as families and friends. The research examines how changes in identity and cultural belonging, in turn, affect the management of such spaces and notions of heritage. Specifically, the research leverages archaeological, ethnographic, and geographic theory and methods to understand the factors associated with the preservation or abandonment of those spaces that are key markers of our past. The project trains several students, disseminates findings broadly, including via a dynamic website, and plans for community outreach events. This research has three aims: (1) to determine the relative rates of abandonment of public cemeteries in relation to individual- and community-level variables; (2) to depict the processes by which these spaces are abandoned and rediscovered; and (3) to understand the feedback between abandonment versus preservation and concepts of identity and belonging. To do so, the investigators are building a data base of relevant locations that includes information on site condition, geographic location in relation to environmental variables and community centers, and relevant demographic and historical variables. Project team members plan to characterize and map a particular space to test whether observed relationships hold within as well as across these types of public spaces. Finally, the investigators plan to interview and involve community members in documentation and preservation activities to test how local identity shapes and is shaped by abandonment versus preservation. In sum, this project utilizes a unique blend of archaeological, historical, ethnographic, and community-based approaches to examine patterning in meaningful public space loss, to examine historical factors contributing to their abandonment, and to discover how communities' interactions with these spaces contributes to collective identity and belonging.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.