World Heritage Buffer Zone as a Liminal Place: A Study of Pasargadae and Sheikh Safi-ad-din (Iran)

Abstract

The World Heritage Buffer zones are a valuable tool for the conservation of properties on the World Heritage List. Throughout the history of the World Heritage Convention, the protection of the ‘surroundings’ of listed properties was considered an essential component of the conservation strategy, for cultural and natural sites alike. This thesis is an investigation of the social process of construction of place in two buffer zones: Pasargadae and Sheikh Safi al-Din Khanegah and Shrine Ensemble. This thesis explores buffer zones as liminal spaces – the transitory spaces – where different actors have inscribed parallel personal and communal spaces within them by reproducing patterns of usage and movement that reflect their daily lives, including conflict, rather than allowing them to be fully transformed into a general protected area.