Open AccessStatus of the World Heritage City — a «kiss of death» or resource in a conflict of interest? The case of Stralsund and Wismar
Author(s) -
Iuliia Eremenko
Publication year - 2019
Publication title -
urbanistika
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
ISSN - 2310-8673
DOI - 10.7256/2310-8673.2019.3.30560
Subject(s) - world heritage , resource (disambiguation) , administration (probate law) , government (linguistics) , political science , tourism , space (punctuation) , work (physics) , local government , public administration , public relations , sociology , law , engineering , computer network , computer science , mechanical engineering , linguistics , philosophy
This article examines the transformation of urban space associated with the status of the World Heritage City, as well as the conflicts arising in this regard. The author faces a question whether the status of the World Heritage City does not allow any changes or they are possible, and the status is the resource in a conflict of interests. The two German cities Stralsund and Wismar with shared status of the World Heritage City were selected as the cases for this work. The research material contains the collected by the author expert interviews with the municipal administration, local activists, employees of the museums and tourist centers, and representatives of the local business. The article also analyzes the material from the two groups on Facebook belonging to the municipal government and the Green Party of Stralsund. The study demonstrates that the status of the World Heritage City imparts strict limitations upon the transformations of the urban space, but does not make their implementation completely impossible. There are times when different actors, such as municipal administration, use the status in diverse ways, depending on their interests.