The Spatial Transformation of the Villages around Chang’an Cultural Heritage Site Based on Actor Network Theory

The villages around a Cultural Heritage Site (CHS), despite being influenced by long-term restrictive conservation policies for protecting their heritage’s integrity, are often excluded from heritage recognition. They do, however, have opportunities to develop tourism and become places involving multiple stakeholders to alleviate the tension between cultural heritage conservation and the sustainable development of the village. As a result, the villages around a Cultural Heritage Site have been faced with much more complex situations than the sites themselves, as more stakeholders participate in and invoke the profound transformation of the space. To clarify this complex spatial transformation and bring about sustainable development, Lougetai village around the Chang’an Cultural Heritage Site, one of the heritage-led tourism villages, is taken as a case study to elucidate the spatial mechanism by applying Actor Network Theory. To achieve this, the multiple actors involved in the process of tourism projects and concomitant spatial transformation are investigated based on: (i) an archival study; (ii) participant observation; and (iii) semi-structured interviews. Our findings are as follows: (1) Lougetai village experienced profound spatial transformation into a heritage-led tourism destination, with residential, communication, and production spaces added, together with commercial space; (2) the process of constructing the heritage-led tourism destination included a heterogeneous actor network in which the Weiyang District Government played a vital role in enrolling other actors to participate, including the village committee, professionals, investors, tourists, and local people; (3) in the process of constructing the heritage-led tourism destination, the interests, intentions, and actions of heterogeneous actors can affect the village’s development. This complicated mechanism is identified from a detailed analysis of the implemented strategies and interests of diverse actors. These findings provide an understanding of the process of establishing heritage-led tourism and can be used to support future research in relation to the sustainable development of the villages around a Cultural Heritage Site.