Work

Mandates without means: Expert perspectives on heritage-sensitive disaster resilience in a centralized environment the İznik (Nicaea) case

Year: 2026

Type: article

Abstract: This study examines how municipal experts in İznik, a UNESCO Tentative List heritage city on Turkey's North Anatolian Fault, conceptualize disaster resilience within highly centralized governance structures. Disaster resilience in such historic settlements requires balancing life safety with cultural preservation—a tension shaped by contested expertise, authority, and trust that remains understudied in non-metropolitan contexts. Using Q-methodology to analyze the subjective viewpoints of 16 municipal experts (representing the district's core technical decision-making body), we asked participants to rank 45 statements derived from national and international frameworks. The analysis identified four distinct perspectives: Individual Responsibility and Preparedness (F1), emphasizing education; State-Centered Technocratic Capacity Builders (F2), prioritizing centralized expertise; Participatory Localists and Cultural Heritage Advocates (F3), integrating local participation with heritage protection; and Institutionalized Solidarity and Trust-Oriented Decentralists (F4), balancing institutional capacity with networks. These perspectives are structured along two orthogonal axes—individualism–collectivism and technocratic–socio-cultural—suggesting that, in heritage city contexts, heritage functions as more than an object of protection: it emerges as a form of resilience infrastructure linked to social cohesion and collective identity in experts' framings. Building on these findings, we propose a conceptual, heuristic framework for Heritage-Sensitive Disaster Resilience aligned with the Türkiye Disaster Risk Reduction Plan (TARAP) and the Sendai Framework. The framework is offered as an analytical synthesis tool, not as a validated implementation plan: moving it into practice would require pilot testing, stakeholder consultation, and iterative refinement. The study is bounded by its small, strategically selected sample of sixteen municipal experts—appropriate for Q-methodology's analytical-generalization logic but not for demographic generalization—by its exclusion of lay citizens and non-municipal actors, and by the specific thematic scope of the Q-set. Future research should incorporate broader stakeholder groups and test the framework's transferability to other heritage cities.

Source: Heliyon

DOI: 10.1016/j.heliyon.2026.e45310

Authors: Sinem Tapki, Ebru Kamaci-Karahan, İsmail Hakkı Demi̇r

Institution: Bursa Technical University

Language: English

Topic: Disaster Management and Resilience

Subfield: Sociology and Political Science

Field: Social Sciences

Domain: Social Sciences

SDGs: Sustainable cities and communities, Peace, justice, and strong institutions

Open Access status: gold

Estimated APC paid: $2,270