Sharing heritage? Politics and territoriality in UNESCO’s heritage lists

Abstract

UNESCO heritage policies encourage the idea that heritage should be 'shared' at the international scale, and invite states and the involved actors to adopt this vision. Yet, 'sharedness' can be understood in many different ways. This paper explores several territorial and political issues related to this notion of sharedness. A focus on the uses of a particular UNESCO tool -'multinational nominations'sheds a light on transnational cultural practices and examines forms of cooperation within communities and between states in the framework of the Convention for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage (ICH). Specifically, it analyses the work of a French commission for the ICH as well as the nomination processes of three different cultural practices to the ICH lists: flamenco, falconry and alpinism. It is argued that 'shared heritage' is interpreted in a variety of ways, leading to contrastive appropriations and competing territorial scenarios among the various protagonists.

The Sustainability of Intangible Heritage in the COVID-19 Era—Resilience, Reinvention, and Challenges in Spain

“…The category of intangible heritage, which arouses increasing expectations and enthusiasm among social and political actors worldwide, has prompted a large number of academic articles that question the concept because of certain theoretical issues it raises [12]. Among other criticisms, academic debates have pointed out the impossibility of protecting living cultural expressions without freezing them in time [13], the difficulty of determining who is responsible for intangible heritage, since it is generally political authorities who seek to have it recognized although whole communities are supposed to be involved [14], the fact that local celebrations are globalized through the work of UNESCO [15], and the false idea that heritage can be "shared" on an international scale [16]. Above all, however, the most important debates refer to the difficulty of heritagizing ICH at all, since by its very nature, it is changing and alive and its practices cannot be fixed or inventoried like other types of heritage [17,18].…”

“…Although most of the virtual applications of ICH are to do with creating inventories [24] and, to a lesser extent, virtual museums [25], the internet offers new opportunities for the transmission and dissemination of ICH-as Pietrobruno [26] and Giaccardi [27] point out, social networks and virtual space enable greater social participation than is possible than simply being included on the UNESCO list. Online activity enables communities to share content through virtual networks and museums, and the ability of users to develop, control, and continuously update the content of websites produces synergies with the changing and ephemeral nature of intangible heritage [16]. These theoretical viewpoints allow us to understand the processes that have emerged during the pandemic, during which certain practices have been transferred and even reinvented online.…”

Interchangeability of hunts as a factor of sustainability of hunting use

“…Охота представляет собой деятельность, осуществляемую множеством практик с различными целеполаганиями, техниками и объектами, от самых простых и общедоступных, не требующих особенных знаний, умений и навыков, до чрезвычайно сложных, таких как соколиная охота, которая в 2010 году была включена в Репрезентативный список нематериального культурного наследия человечества Конвенции ЮНЕСКО об охране нематериального культурного наследия (2003 г.) в качестве социальной и рекреационной деятельности, а также способа связи с природой, сохраняющих и поддерживающих всемирно значимые ценности, традиции и методы, включая методы разведения, дрессировки и ухода за птицами, используемое оборудование и связи между сокольником и птицей 1 [3].…”

World Heritage Sites and the question of scale in governance and politics: A study of Stonehenge

“…"Seven Sites Confirmed in the Running for UNESCO World Heritage Status," UK Government, 10 April 2023, https://www.gov.uk/government/news/seven-sites-confirmed-in-the-running-for-unesco-world-heritage-status (accessed 5th July 2023).146 Wray 2021a, 2021b.147 Debarbieux and Munz 2019;Debarbieux et al 2023.148 Smith 1992.…”