IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jsusta/v14y2022i16p10063-d888020.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Community Engagement via Mural Art to Foster a Sustainable Urban Environment

Author

Listed:
  • Saulė Petronienė

    (Faculty of Social Sciences, Arts and Humanities, Kaunas University of Technology, 44249 Kaunas, Lithuania)

  • Saulutė Juzelėnienė

    (Faculty of Social Sciences, Arts and Humanities, Kaunas University of Technology, 44249 Kaunas, Lithuania)

Abstract

Community is a key element in a sustainable urban environment and possesses a capacity to become a major contributor in the development of it. Therefore, it is essential for communities to be active and engaged. The concept of a community and its engagement via mural art is addressed in this article. The aim of the research is to investigate the impact of mural art on community engagement and the contribution of communities to a sustainable urban environment. The research was based on materials obtained during the implementation of the “Murals for Communities” project. The aim of the project was to address the issues of community engagement in three cities with social disconnection: Waterford (Ireland), Heerlen (the Netherlands), and Kaunas (Lithuania). The engagement of the communities through mural art creation was initiated through community engagement workshops where the communities were encouraged to participate in collaborative actions resulting in the improvement of the urban environment and the strengthening of the communities themselves. In total, 54 community engagement workshops were organized and 18 murals were created in the three partner cities. The entire process of community engagement was a well-coordinated and structured framework of actors and events, where each of them played a significant role. The results of the research revealed that community engagement workshops were used as a successful tool for community bonding and strengthening. Hence, mural art is a successful tool for sustainable community development, and the process of mural creation with its various stages enables community members to be active participants of social interaction and developers of both a sustainable community and a sustainable urban environment.

Suggested Citation

  • Saulė Petronienė & Saulutė Juzelėnienė, 2022. "Community Engagement via Mural Art to Foster a Sustainable Urban Environment," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(16), pages 1-13, August.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:14:y:2022:i:16:p:10063-:d:888020
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/14/16/10063/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/14/16/10063/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Finco, Adele & Nijkamp, Peter, 2001. "Pathways to urban sustainability," Serie Research Memoranda 0027, VU University Amsterdam, Faculty of Economics, Business Administration and Econometrics.
    2. Nessa Winston, 2021. "Sustainable community development: Integrating social and environmental sustainability for sustainable housing and communities," Working Papers 202106, Geary Institute, University College Dublin.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Angioletta Voghera & Benedetta Giudice, 2019. "Evaluating and Planning Green Infrastructure: A Strategic Perspective for Sustainability and Resilience," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(10), pages 1-21, May.
    2. Norhasni Zainal Abiddin & Irmohizam Ibrahim & Shahrul Azuwar Abdul Aziz, 2022. "Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs) and Their Part towards Sustainable Community Development," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(8), pages 1-13, April.
    3. Nelunika Priyashani & Nayomi Kankanamge & Tan Yigitcanlar, 2023. "Multisource Open Geospatial Big Data Fusion: Application of the Method to Demarcate Urban Agglomeration Footprints," Land, MDPI, vol. 12(2), pages 1-23, February.
    4. Nuno Quental & Júlia Lourenço & Fernando da Silva, 2011. "Sustainability: characteristics and scientific roots," Environment, Development and Sustainability: A Multidisciplinary Approach to the Theory and Practice of Sustainable Development, Springer, vol. 13(2), pages 257-276, April.
    5. Xiaoxiao Wang & Huafu Zhao & Jiacheng Qian & Xiao Li & Congjie Cao & Zhe Feng & Yiqing Cui, 2024. "Sustainable Land Use Diagnosis Based on the Perspective of Coupling Socioeconomy and Ecology in the Xiongan New Area, China," Land, MDPI, vol. 13(1), pages 1-22, January.
    6. Alireza Moghayedi & Bankole Awuzie & Temitope Omotayo & Karen Le Jeune & Mark Massyn, 2022. "Appraising the nexus between influencers and sustainability‐oriented innovation adoption in affordable housing projects," Sustainable Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 30(5), pages 1117-1134, October.
    7. Juan Tang & Hong-lin Zhu & Zhi Liu & Fu Jia & Xiao-xue Zheng, 2019. "Urban Sustainability Evaluation under the Modified TOPSIS Based on Grey Relational Analysis," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 16(2), pages 1-21, January.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:14:y:2022:i:16:p:10063-:d:888020. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.