2020 | Building Peace through Heritage
ferent practices and that to incorporate different people’s experiences formally into professional practice
(Sandercock, 2003; Agyeman and Erickson, 2012; Wood and Landry, 2012). In landscape architecture,
dialogue and storytelling could be effective cultural literacy tools to improve cultural competency and
need to be implemented to understand the nuances of practices and meanings when learning about and
understanding diversity. Landscape architecture can support different meanings and practice with spatial
design qualities. To promote cultural competency in the professional practice of POS, it is imperative to
understand different cultures and that cultures have been and are evolving constantly. Sandercock (2003),
however, shares her worries on using stories in practice without openness and inclusiveness. Innovative
cultural competency tools such as digital intercultural dialogue and storytelling can be significant to
support thoughtful design and management of POS including heritage sites to incorporate cultural differences
with more inclusivity to support sustainability and long-term decisions.
Conclusion
This paper finds that heritage locations are important sites for conviviality. Landscape architectural practice
can play a vital role in achieving the agenda of both conservation and maintaining conviviality
though supporting different patterns of outdoor leisure practices. Landscape architects need to recognize
that leisure activities in POS are culturally defined. The research context provides evidences on the visibility
of diversity with different social and cultural practices in POS, which is considered an essential
base for conviviality and meaningful encounters. Affordances for recreation in POS and heritage sites
were central to providing outdoor activities and are important for facilitating the regular practice of being
outdoors and providing opportunities for encounters with diverse people. Cultural leisure practices are
context dependent. Supporting diverse leisure cultural practices in different typologies with spatial qualities
and social functioning is important to maintain conviviality and peaceful coexistence.
The meanings of outdoor leisure activities are complex with interpersonal dimension; their importance,
however, should not be ignored, as these meanings are relevant to an individual’s wellbeing. The research
indicated the feasibility of engaging with notions of cultural literacy in practice and research in Bahrain.
By using in-depth interview and storytelling (methods developed under intercultural discourses) in the
research, it was possible to explore the nuances of the meanings of everyday encounters and conviviality,
which are invisible and reflecting different individual’s perceptions and identities. With population
change and rapid mobility across the world, landscape architecture needs to be well informed about
changes in cultural leisure practices, different cultural expectations and nuances of meanings. New generations
might not use the spaces in similar ways to older generations. With social and cultural dynamics,
cultural competency tools such as dialogue and storytelling should be considered within open spaces and
heritage professional practices to understand the nuances of transcultural practices and reasoning behind.
Supporting the landscape architecture practice with ethnographic research would also be effective to continue
and sustain different outdoor leisure practices to maintain conviviality.
References
01. Adloff, F., 2016, Convivialism - now more than ever?! Convivialism Transnational (online). Date
of access: 08/02/2020. Available from: http://convivialism.org/?p=223.
02. Agyeman, J. and Erickson, J.S., 2012, Culture, recognition, and the negotiation of difference:
some thoughts on cultural competency in planning education. Journal of Planning Education and
Research, 32(3), 358-366.
03. Al-Madani, W. and Rishbeth, C., 2020, Public open spaces in Bahrain: connecting migrants and
urban heritage in a transcultural city. In: Urban Heritage along the silk roads, edited by F. F.
Arefian and S. H. I. Moeini. London, Springer. pp.9-20.
04. Al-Madani, W., 2018, Public open spaces in Bahrain: the potential for transcultural conviviality.
PhD Thesis, University of Sheffield.
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