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Perspectives: The Series Heritage Studies

The Heritage Studies book series, like the Institute itself, aims to capture and develop heritage studies paradigmatically. On the one hand, the diverse constructions of heritage - from material to immaterial to documentary, from static to dynamic, from individual to social or cultural - are conveyed to people. On the other hand, the associated meanings of such considerations of heritage are made accessible to people and societies. An additional important goal of the series is to make known the worldwide thematic, content-related, and cultural diversity of approaches to heritage protection and heritage use. And this is precisely what makes us a leading institution worldwide. An example of this is the recently published book on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the World Heritage Convention, which, with 61 authors from 28 countries, interprets the past, present and future of the World Heritage Convention cross-culturally. In 2023, a book on dealing with trauma after the destruction of heritage, one on empowerment and community development through World Heritage by indigenous peoples in the Americas, and a book on dance as intangible heritage will be published.

Perspectives: Intangible Heritage – 20th Anniversary of the Convention

20 years have passed since the adoption of the UNESCO “Convention for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage" in 2003. Another UNESCO Convention for the Safeguarding of the Heritage of Humanity can therefore celebrate a success story in 2023. The Convention on "Intangible Heritage" is characterised by a concept of culture and heritage that relates directly to people and their actions. It thus fills the gaps in the World Heritage Convention's understanding of what identity is and what it gives us. A feasibility study made a fundamental contribution to the implementation of the Convention in Germany and to the entry of the Federal Republic of Germany in 2013. This study was initiated by the World Heritage Coordinating Body at the Federal Foreign Office under its first director Dr. Birgitta Ringbeck and conducted by Prof. Dr. Marie-Theres Albert, then Chairholder of the UNESCO Chair in Heritage Studies at the BTU-Cottbus-Senftenberg. The IHS contributes to the appreciation of the Convention's success story in the form of interesting publications in its Heritage Studies book series.

Perspectives: Heritage and Sustainable Development

Heritage Studies at the IHS positions itself as a critical discipline that, while addressing its research questions and topics in an inter- and/or transdisciplinary manner, derives them explicitly from the demands of the realities of life that change daily and differently for the people of the world. This firstly includes positioning the epistemological interest in the context of the diversity of our world. It also means reflecting the cultural diversity of the world in the approaches and methods of heritage studies without becoming arbitrary. Last but not least, it means developing strategies for the future, for example, for a sustainable approach to heritage. In other words, it is not about gaining abstract knowledge, but explicitly about conceiving heritage studies paradigmatically for human development and working on this theoretically and practically in the form of projects.

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