Community Participation and Community Evaluation of Heritage Revitalisation Projects in Hong Kong

This paper aims to investigate the relationship between community participation and community evaluation of heritage revitalisation projects in the context of Hong Kong. In 2007, the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region government introduced a Revitalisation Scheme to conserve and revitalise government-owned historic buildings. Nevertheless, since the announcement of the Revitalisation Scheme, whether the concerned revitalisation projects could benefit the local community, as publicized in the multiple objectives of the scheme by the government, has become a very contentious issue. This issue seriously affects the communities’ attitudes and opinions on the Revitalisation Scheme. This paper will address this issue from the perspective of community participation in heritage revitalisation projects. Based on a recently completed revitalisation project under the Revitalisation Scheme, this paper asserts that there is a positive correlation between community participation and community evaluation of the project’s social impact.