Practical Considerations for Safeguarding Intangible Cultural Heritage examines theoretical issues relating to intangible cultural heritage policy and practice, whilst also proposing practical ways to facilitate the safeguarding of such heritage. Providing guidelines for best practice that take into account the constraints of the UNESCO-ICH paradigm, Stefano examines the principles and practices of two alternative and largely non-UNESCO frameworks for sustaining living cultural traditions: the philosophy of ecomuseology, and the discipline of public folklore in the context of the U.S. Arguing that they offer more collaborative, equitable, and effective ways forward for safeguarding ICH, Stefano demonstrates how they can address the limitations of the UNESCO-ICH paradigm. Importantly, the book offers a personal perspective, grounded in the author’s public sector work, which allows the ICH discourse to move beyond critical analysis and explore realistic, alternative ways in which ICH can be collaboratively and equitably safeguarded. Practical Considerations for Safeguarding Intangible Cultural Heritage proposes guidelines for professionals, researchers, and communities that foster safeguarding approaches that are as unique and nuanced as ICH expressions themselves. The interdisciplinary nature of the book will ensure that it is useful to those interested in community-led ICH safeguarding, as well as the impacts of UNESCO’s 2003 Convention, in diverse geographic, political, economic, and sociocultural contexts.

Wide-ranging essays on intangible cultural heritage, with a focus on its negotiation, its value, and how to protect it.

The UNESCO Convention for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage came into force in 2006, framing the international and national practices and policies associated with intangible cultural heritage. This volume critically and reflexively examines these practices and policies, providing an accessible account of the different ways in which intangible cultural heritage has been defined and managed in both national and international contexts. As Safeguarding Intangible Heritage reveals, the concept and practices of safeguarding are complicated and often contested, and there is a need for international debate about the meaning, nature and value of heritage and what it means to ‘safeguard’ it. Safeguarding Intangible Heritage presents a significant cross section of ideas and practices from some of the key academics and practitioners working in the area, whose areas of expertise span anthropology, law, heritage studies, linguistics, archaeology, museum studies, folklore, architecture, Indigenous studies and history. The chapters in this volume give an overarching analysis of international policy and practice and critically frame case studies that analyze practices from a range of countries, including Australia, Canada, China, Indonesia, Japan, Korea, Kyrgyzstan, New Zealand, Taiwan, the UK and Zimbabwe. With a focus on conceptual and theoretical issues, this follow-up to Intangible Heritage, by the same editors, will be of great interest to students, scholars and professionals working in the fields of heritage and museum studies, heritage conservation, heritage tourism, global history, international relations, art and architectural history, and linguists.

Intangible Heritage fills a significant gap in the heritage literature available and represents a significant cross section of ideas and practices associated with intangible cultural heritage. The authors brought together for this volume represent some of the key academics and practitioners working in the area, and discuss research and practices from a range of countries.

Drawing on debates about intangible cultural heritage (ICH) safeguarding at the local and international levels, Intangible Cultural Heritage and Sustainable Development: Inside a UNESCO Convention, explores the theoretical and practical implications of the intertwinement between these policy fields. Considering how sustainable development (SD) priorities are influencing representations of ICH, the volume questions how they are expanding the frontiers of the heritage realm and unsettling accepted understandings of the social uses of heritage. The contributing authors, who hail from a variety of different contexts and disciplinary backgrounds, explore these issues from a unique vantage point as both scholars and actors of the processes they analyze. Playing different roles in the implementation of the Convention, their positioning as insiders allows for a unique analytical perspective that is based on first-hand engagement with the practices of the Convention. Intangible Cultural Heritage and Sustainable Development: Inside a UNESCO Convention sheds light on the complexity, potential, and consequences of combining ICH and SD at the policy-making level and in heritage practices on the ground. It will be of interest to academics and students working in heritage studies, development studies, anthropology, archaeology, international law, political science, international relations, and sociology.

This publication, prepared under the aegis of the WIPO Creative Heritage Project by two external consultants, Ms. Molly Torsen and Dr. Jane Anderson, offers legal information and compiles practical experiences on the management of intellectual property for cultural institutions whose collections comprise traditional cultural expressions. It seeks to respond directly to the needs of cultural institutions and indigenous and traditional communities dealing with the preservation, safeguarding and protection of cultural heritage.

This book covers intangible cultural heritage (ICH) governance through an Asia-Pacific context, making reference to the historical development of the international instruments guiding ICH policy. With a review of the 2003 Convention for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage’s development, this work provides an understanding into why the Convention is the way it is, how it is developing, and how to apply it in different situations. Furthermore, dedicating sections to explain good governance and the manner through which the 2003 Convention hopes to influence good governance in the ICH field, the book will help readers to understand the major issues and barriers to good governance in this field. In addition, the case studies integrated in this volume provide tools and context with which to analyze ICH and ICH governance. Overall, the central questions answered in this work are ‘What is governance in terms of ICH safeguarding?’ and ‘How do interactions between global and local governance develop?’ The included experimental strategies for enhancing ICH safeguarding governance offer a glimpse into what may be possible. As the 2003 Convention is still relatively young, there is a need for in-depth research that covers the core governance issues that have arisen over the past decade. This book, being unique in its direct focus on ICH governance, will help fill this information gap and give readers a concise reference point for such issues.

Safeguarding Intangible Cultural Heritage (ICH) On The International Day of the World's Indigenous Peoples 9-10th August 2020

This book offers a comprehensive analysis of the legal issues around intangible cultural heritage (also known as traditional cultural expressions or folklore). It explores both institutional and substantive responses the law offers to the safeguarding of intangible heritage, relying heavily on critiques internal and external to the law. These external critiques primarily come from the disciplines of anthropology and heritage studies. Intangible cultural heritage is safeguarded on three different levels: international, regional, and national. At the international level, the foremost instrument is the specific UNESCO Convention for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage (2003). At the regional level, initiatives are undertaken both in schemes of political and economic integration, a common thread being that intangible cultural heritage helps promote a common identity for the region, becoming thus a desirable aspect of the integration process. Domestically, responses range from strong constitutional forms of protection to rather weak policy initiatives aimed primarily at attracting foreign aid. Intangible heritage can also be safeguarded via substantive law, and, in this respect, the book looks at the potential and pitfalls of human rights law, intellectual property tools, and contractual approaches. It investigates how the law works and ought to work towards protecting communities, defined as those from where intangible cultural heritage stems, and to whom benefits of its exploitation must return. The book takes the critiques from anthropological and heritage studies into account in order to posit a re-shaped law, offering tools that can be valuable to both scholars and practitioners when understanding how to safeguard intangible heritage.

Intangible Heritage and Participation examines participation as an intellectual and operational frame in safeguarding intangible heritage. Including case studies from the Netherlands, Belgium, Aotearoa New Zealand, Greece, Peru, Britain, Denmark, Sweden and Japan, the book provides an analysis of safeguarding as a museological framework and further investigates safeguarding practices in participatory research, memory-work and cultural transmission. Drawing on conversations about ‘the tyranny of participation’, the book looks into the complexities of participatory projects on the ground, from community research and collecting to the mapping of Indigenous values in environmental conservation and processes of active remembering of ‘difficult intangible heritage’ of forced migration, political violence and mental illness. Cautioning against the uncritical adoption of participation as a universal ethical discourse, Alivizatou argues that the ethics of cosmopolitanism should guide safeguarding practices at an international level. Intangible Heritage and Participation offers an original approach to thinking about and working with intangible heritage and, as such, should be essential reading for academics, researchers and students in, among others, the fields of cultural heritage studies, museology, anthropology and cultural development. It should also be of interest to heritage and museum professionals and anyone else interested in cultural heritage theory and practice.