Cultural Sustainability and Space – a Comparison of two Cases in Kathmandu, Nepal

One of the major challenges today is to learn how to act collaboratively in public space. This does not just relate to the use of old public space; it is also about creating new common platforms where people can participate in any kind of development process. Apparently, cultural, social and economic activities of certain societal groups influence decisions in the development process, but these activities do not necessarily include all users. The aim of this article is to analyse how local stakeholders negotiate and conduct socio‐cultural activities, how activities form and change, how they permit and confine access for different users in any kind of development process, and how they relate to cultural sustainability. We analyse and compare two cases of place conservation, one from a courtyard in the residential area of Itumbahal in Kathmandu and the other from the close‐by Indrachowk Square. Results of the comparison show that the ability and willingness of local stakeholders to interact with other groups had a great influence on the success or failure of these conservation projects. Another important factor was the influence and actions of external stakeholders, e.g. the Department of Archaeology and donors, and how local stakeholders responded to them. Drawing on aspects of heritage, social and cultural sustainability and stakeholder theories, this study recommends mapping stakeholders’ interactions before starting a conservation project, deliberately fostering common discussions on the use and conservation of space between diverging socio‐cultural groups and introducing control mechanisms to guarantee that responsibilities are met. Further research has to show if and how these recommendations are transferable to other cultural sustainability processes in urban and rural settings. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment