Quantifying Attachment to Abandoned Villages in Jordan

A Pilot Survey of Connected Residents with Evidence of Empirical Fusion Between Place and Memory

Bibliographic Data

ID24019505
AuthorsAlaa Khashman (Hashemite University), Rama Al-Rabady (Al-Ahliyya Amman University, corresponding author), Siba Awawdeh (Hashemite University)
Year2026
Volume9
Issue8
Pages302
Publication date2026-08-04
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueHeritage (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 2571-9408 • E-ISSN: 2571-9408
PublisherMDPI AG (PUBLISHER • IT)
DOI10.3390/heritage9080302
OpenAlexW7172405354
LanguageEN
References cited29

This pilot study quantified perceptions of abandoned vernacular villages (Khirbeh) among 359 purposively sampled Jordanian residents with active ancestral ties. Results showed strongly positive perceptions overall (grand mean = 1.666 on a 5-point scale where 1 = strong agreement), with ceiling effects (23% “all 1s”) indicating limited scale granularity. A four-factor model (Cultural Heritage, Place & Space [PS], Social Memory [SM], Community Identity [CI]) achieved acceptable global fit (CFI = 0.915, RMSEA = 0.065) but failed to demonstrate discriminant validity: PS and SM were empirically indistinguishable (r = 0.80; √AVE

Closeness · Multicollinearity · Nonprobability sampling · Perception · Place attachment · Prosperity · Scale (ratio) · Survey data collection · Migration, Aging, and Tourism Studies · Place Attachment and Urban Studies · Urban, Neighborhood, and Segregation Studies

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