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Lookup NU author(s): Minki SungORCiD, Tiancheng Ren, Mustapha Manga
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC BY 4.0).
The relationship between heritage and social capital remains comparatively underexplored in rural contexts, despite ongoing challenges such as the urban–rural divide, aging populations, and community depopulation. This study investigates how local stakeholders in rural communities in the Republic of Korea, which are often characterized by poverty, demographic decline, and weakened social networks, mobilize socially constructed notions of heritage to strengthen communal social capital. Drawing on 145 questionnaires and on-site observations gathered in 2020, we employed partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) using Smart PLS to analyze the data. PLS-SEM was selected for its ability to model complex relationships among local stakeholders, heritage concepts, and communal social capital, while enhancing representativeness through bootstrapping. Our findings highlight the influential role of economically active populations and domestic rural migrants in fostering communal social capital, mediated by village communal heritage. Confucian-influenced social hierarchies, particularly those associated with age, gender, and length of residence, were found to moderate the effects of village communal heritage on trust and participation. Natural heritage emerged as a driver of community connectedness, irrespective of the presence of Confucian value-related social hierarchies. These insights underscore the importance of inclusive rural heritage policies that address socio-cultural hierarchies and stakeholder diversity, thereby supporting more equitable and participatory rural community development.
Author(s): Sung M, Ren T, Manga M
Publication type: Article
Publication status: Published
Journal: Built Heritage
Year: 2026
Volume: 10
Issue: 7
Pages: 1-19
Online publication date: 27/01/2026
Acceptance date: 06/01/2026
Date deposited: 29/01/2026
ISSN (print): 2096-3041
Publisher: Springer Nature
URL: https://doi.org/10.1186/s43238-026-00249-9
DOI: 10.1186/s43238-026-00249-9
Data Access Statement: Not applicable
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