Limits of residents' participation in the heritage conservation operations - The case of of Constantine

The purpose of this study is to examine the residents' participation in the public operations for the rehabilitation of the built heritage carried out in the old town of Constantine. Constantine has undergone several intervention operations on its built heritage. However, few of them have been completed. This brings us to ask about the causes of these failures. Several hypotheses can be envisaged, including the predominance of private property, which represents 71% of the urban fabric, and the lack of effective participation of its residents. To confirm this, one case studies have been carried out: The pilot project for the rehabilitation of the street "Mellah Slimane" in 2005. The research followed a qualitative approach using several data collection instruments. The results of this work show several shortcomings in terms of the effectiveness of the participatory approach focusing on the residents during the studied operations. Understanding these limitations could help to rethink public action for heritage conservation in inhabited historic centres.