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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 …
Posted in: Intangible Cultural Heritage, WIPO
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 …
Posted in: Cultural Heritage, Intangible Cultural Heritage, WIPO
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 …
Posted in: Intangible Cultural Heritage, WIPO
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 …
Posted in: Bess Lomax Hawes, Cultural Heritage, Intangible Cultural Heritage, WIPO
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 …
Posted in: Intangible Cultural Heritage, Uncategorized, WIPO
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’ …
Posted in: Intangible Cultural Heritage, WIPO
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 …
Posted in: Cultural Heritage, Intangible Cultural Heritage, WIPO
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 …
Posted in: Intangible Cultural Heritage, WIPO
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 …
Posted in: Intangible Cultural Heritage, WIPO