Mona Erfanian Salim
Throughout its history, every city has constantly changed its face through the life stories of its citizens. Therefore, the story of a city comes from the story of the people who live in it, full of sorrow and joy, fear and hope, events and happenings. The narration of these stories suggests a different understanding of the city and helps to create a different city. Narration makes the citizen a storyteller and gives him a role and agency in the story of the city. Moving toward the narrative understanding of cities is an essential step to recognizing differences, minorities, and margins, and this understanding will not be fully achieved except through the mediation of more narrative and storytelling urban planning. Stories and storytelling will be compelling in resolving disputes, developing local communities, studying collaborative actions, resource management, and policy making. Stories, when carefully told and heard, can act as a bridge between old habits and new futures. Understanding the power of storytelling is very important for public decision-making and urban well-being. Currently, stories are a universal, fundamental tool for human thought, communication, and action. Stories also are used extensively in tourism marketing. The stories framework generates principles for tourist experience design. According to these theoretical ideas, this research aims to show how city narration can be applied as a tool for citizens’ participation in urban tourism development. Firstly, the study reviews the new approaches to narration in tourism and urban studies and then, is continued experimentally. The experimental study is based on interviews with experts in the fields of urban development and tourism. In the first stage, the interview domain is general, without attention to a particular city. In the next stage, the interviews are conducted in Caldas da Rainha, a small city in Portugal. By comparing theoretical and experimental findings and analysing them, this study displays the social capacities of city narration for improving urban tourism development toward an inclusive city. The experimental study introduces narration as a practical tool for citizens’ participation in urban planning. It applies the interview method as an invitation to tell a story and a two-way meeting between two subjects. It helps to discover the special challenges of both experts and society. This experience illustrates a different and straightforward view of establishing a mutual dialogue with people and making them participate in decision-making because it provides an innovative tool to understand people’s needs in the city, from the side of the sociological approach. Therefore, the study creates a context for balancing urban development and sustainable tourism strategies, by strengthening the linkage between the past and present of the city. It also provides a simple tool that fosters the promotion of social interaction between multicultural communities. Generally, the results of the research help to give meaning to the human values of the city and to preserve them.
Keywords: City Narration, Citizen’s Participation, Urban Tourism Development
2024, Panellist and Co-creation Presenter, XIII International Scientific Conference Tourism in Social Sciences 2024, Jagiellonian University, Krakow, Poland