ABSTRACT
This chapter explores the interrelationship between urban imaginaries and heritage in projects related to the sustainable management of historic urban environments. The chapter will do so by adopting a sociocultural approach to the functioning of human imagination in the empirical case of urban regeneration of Dadaocheng, Taipei City, Taiwan. The chapter will demonstrate that urban heritage is being used to connect the place’s historical prosperity, to advance its present-day cultural and economic vitality, and to enrich the story contexts of both place development and individual life histories. Furthermore, the chapter shows that long-term policy practices can affect discourse references and material representations linked to the construction of urban imaginaries and place values. The chapter concludes by stating that the heritage–imagination–sustainability concern of urban cultural policy could and should focus on encouraging diverse urban imaginaries with individual living stories, rather than promoting a shared, collective imagination with the ultimate goal to shape a collective identity.
