COMMUNITY, HERITAGE AND SOCIAL CAPITAL: INFORMAL HERITAGE MANAGEMENT IN OLD DHAKA: Fid-Bau Portal

COMMUNITY, HERITAGE AND SOCIAL CAPITAL: INFORMAL HERITAGE MANAGEMENT IN OLD DHAKA

Iftekhar Ahmed

The communities are rich in social capital gained over successive generations of close social network. [...]it recommends an appropriate conservation approach to save the cultural heritage of Old Dhaka where there is a balance between intervention by authorities and continuity of local community involvement. Heritage typically centers on the notion of culture-natures that are inherited from those that came before us and are safeguarded in the present in order to be bestowed for the benefit of future generations (Winter and Daly 2012: 8). [...]it is critical to understand how the communities of the traditional neighborhoods continue to safeguard and manage local heritage with their common wisdom and knowledge. Rather than approaching heritage conservation or future development in the conventional way, often governed by the well-known Eurocentric heritage conservation charters, it may be beneficial to examine the way the communities in traditional urban settlements retain their cultural continuity in a fast changing urban environment around them. HERITAGE OF OLD DHAKA The tangible or physical elements of the traditional mahallas include a wide array of building forms, morphology, spatial layout, architectural styles, use of materials, details and ornamentations (Figure 3). The physical or tangible heritage of Old Dhaka has undergone the inevitable process of unique local community values; there is a need for place-specific standards of best practice to guide conservation decisions. AL. 1990, Restructuring: Place, Class and Gender, Sage Publications, London, UK BONNICI, U. M. 2009, The human right to cultural heritage - The Faro Convention's contribution to the recognition and...