Community dynamics of public space management and abandonment

公共空间是人们聚会、纪念过去事件和纪念有影响力的个人遗产的场所。这些空间的位置和照顾为社区遗产、身份和前景的概念提供了信息，因为这些特征在如何管理社区空间中起着关键作用。该项目调查了导致保存和放弃一种重要类型的公共空间——墓地的过程，它可以标志着强烈的社区意义。它们是纪念我们的战争英雄、我们的领袖、我们的祖先以及家人和朋友的重要方式。该研究考察了身份和文化归属的变化如何反过来影响这些空间的管理和遗产的概念。具体来说，这项研究利用考古学、人种学和地理学的理论和方法来理解与保存或放弃这些空间有关的因素，这些空间是我们过去的关键标志。该项目培训了几名学生，广泛传播调查结果，包括通过一个动态网站，并计划开展社区外展活动。本研究有三个目的：(1)确定公共墓地的相对遗弃率与个人和社区层面变量的关系；(2)描绘这些空间被抛弃和重新发现的过程；(3)了解遗弃与保留与身份归属概念之间的反馈关系。为此，调查人员正在建立一个有关地点的数据库，其中包括有关地点条件、与环境变量和社区中心有关的地理位置以及有关的人口和历史变量的信息。项目团队成员计划描绘和绘制一个特定的空间，以测试观察到的关系是否在这些类型的公共空间内以及在这些公共空间之间成立。最后，调查人员计划采访并让社区成员参与记录和保护活动，以测试放弃与保护如何形成和塑造当地身份。总而言之，该项目采用了考古、历史、民族志和社区为基础的独特方法来研究有意义的公共空间丧失的模式，研究导致它们被遗弃的历史因素，并发现社区与这些空间的互动如何有助于集体身份和归属感。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

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.