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Category: WIPO

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Folklife at the International Level: Intangible Cultural Heritage Defined

Posted by: Michelle Stefano

If this series is a mountain, I am pleased to say that we are now climbing up to its peak: an examination of the 2003 Convention for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). It is through the 2003 Convention that the concept and category …

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Folklife at the International Level: Happy Anniversary to the 1999 UNESCO-Smithsonian Meeting

Posted by: Michelle Stefano

The Folklife at the International Level series has set out on a winding road, tracing the concept of “intangible cultural heritage” (ICH) as developed through a series of international initiatives over the course of the late 20th century. As the signs posted throughout have indicated, this road leads to the global framework for ICH promotion and …

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Folklife at the International Level: Roots of Intangible Cultural Heritage Part VIII, Masterpieces and Paradoxes

Posted by: Michelle Stefano

In Part VII, we got a feel for the strong momentum that was building during the 1990s with respect to the more concerted efforts of UNESCO in safeguarding intangible cultural heritage (ICH) – and raising awareness of the need to – globally. In particular, we took a look at the Living Human Treasures model, long …

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Folklife at the International Level: the National Endowment for the Arts National Heritage Fellowships, with Clifford Murphy

Posted by: Michelle Stefano

Our journey in the Folklife at the International Level series last took us to long-established East Asian “Living Human Treasures” programs for safeguarding intangible cultural heritage (ICH). As discussed, during the 1990s, UNESCO recommended to Member States that they adopt similar systems of subsidizing (or, at the least, officially recognizing) people in their own territories …

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Folklife at the International Level: Roots of Intangible Cultural Heritage Part VII, Treasures

Posted by: Michelle Stefano

In Part VI, we examined UNESCO’s 1972 World Heritage Convention and some of its underlying notions and approaches that have influenced the development of UNESCO’s Intangible Cultural Heritage (ICH) framework of today. In particular, I singled out its use of listing – namely, the World Heritage List – as a mechanism for preservation by drawing …

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Folklife at the International Level: The Roots of ‘Intangible Cultural Heritage’ Part VI, World Heritage

Posted by: Michelle Stefano

In honor of World Intellectual Property Day, let’s get back into the realm of global cultural heritage, particularly with respect to the idea of heritage as property. In the last post, I unknotted the notion of death (via globalization and homogenization) from the tangle of concepts, values, and disciplinary legacies known as ‘intangible cultural heritage’ …

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Folklife at the International Level: The Roots of ‘Intangible Cultural Heritage’ Part V, Globalization and Death

Posted by: Michelle Stefano

Now that we have introduced UNESCO’s 1989 Recommendation on the Safeguarding of Traditional Culture and Folklore in the last blog post in this series, and discussed some of its recommended approaches, let’s delve back into tracing the development of the ICH concept. As a starting point, the 1989 Recommendation offers us this: Folklore (or traditional and popular culture) is …

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Folklife at the International Level: The Roots of ‘Intangible Cultural Heritage’ Part IV, the 1989 Recommendation

Posted by: Michelle Stefano

In the last post, we made our way to UNESCO’s 1989 Recommendation on the Safeguarding of Traditional Culture and Folklore, tracing some key changes in precursor definitions for what is now called ‘intangible cultural heritage’ (ICH). I will return to the ICH concept’s development, but let’s make a pit stop to look more closely at …

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Folklife at the International Level: the Roots of Intangible Cultural Heritage Part III

Posted by: Michelle Stefano

This series of blog posts has turned to looking more closely at the roots of the ‘intangible cultural heritage’ (ICH) concept, laying a foundation for examining the global policy – and thereby framework – from which it draws its strength: the 2003 Convention for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of the United Nations …