Urban and inland waterways around the world have been a fertile ground for regeneration processes to transform post-industrial neighbourhoods and a production of new places.
Historic waterways are the domain where the amalgamation of the human and the non-human are in continuous negotiations, in a liminal state of in-betweeness.
Engaging local communities with the regenerated places through the practice of heritage, can present challenges and result in competing priorities (Vallerani and Visentin, 2018).
The paper examines the dynamics and tensions of the practice of heritage (Smith 2016) in the living environment of the Forth and Clyde canal, in Glasgow, Scotland, engaging migrant communities living in proximity to these waterways. This paper draws on a case study of engaging migrant community groups in boat building and boat handling. It explores the intrinsic properties of boat building and boating as a means of water use, protection of traditional skills and the transmission of knowledge, resulting in the production of social space.
Actively engaging with blue spaces for recognition and integration, the impermanent nature of migrant communities poses tensions in the engagement and understanding of heritage as a means to reclaim right to space in the city. Tensions appear in relation to recognition of who constitutes the ‘local community’ and in ownership, concerning ‘connectivity’ to the locality. What emerges from the study is a need for community integration based on a sense of belonging in this ever-changing environment.
