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Perspectives: The Series Heritage Studies

The academic book series Heritage Studies aims to paradigmatically grasp and develop the heritage of humanity. To this end, the diverse constructions of heritage - from material to immaterial to documentary, from static to dynamic, from individual to social - are conveyed and made accessible, to people, along with the associated meanings of such considerations of heritage. An important goal of the series is to make known the worldwide thematic, content-related and culturally diverse approaches to heritage protection and use, with authors and editors from all parts of the world, and by so doing contribute to decolonizing knowledge in the field of heritage. We have made a start with our previous co-edited volumes, all of which display perspectives that span the world. The latest book “50 Years World Heritage Convention: Shared Responsibility – Conflict and Reconciliation” was written by 61 authors from 28 countries and has been published in open access. In only 5 months it has achieved 122k downloads, showing the success of this expanded orientation. In 2023, we are publishing two books on the empowerment and community development of indigenous peoples in the Americas through world heritage, and on dance as intangible heritage, respectively.

Publication: World Heritage

50 Years World Heritage Convention:  Shared Responsibility – Conflict & Reconciliation

50 Years World Heritage Convention:
Shared Responsibility – Conflict & Reconciliation

The authors of the book "50 Years World Heritage Convention: Shared Responsibility - Conflict & Reconciliation" base their work on the paradigm that heritage builds identity and that the destruction of heritage destroys identity. People and societies are therefore responsible for the sustainable protection of their heritage. As the destruction of heritage is multidimensional, so is the responsibility that people and societies must take for their heritage. The most successful convention for protecting our heritage, the World Heritage Convention, is dedicated to this responsibility and celebrated its 50th anniversary in 2022. This book is a reflection on its implementation.

Announcements


Claiming Back Their Heritage – Indigenous Empowerment and Community Development through World Heritage more ...

Heritage Reconstruction and People - Integrated Recovery after Trauma

Heritage Reconstruction and People - Integrated Recovery after Trauma

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 Federal Republic of Germany ratifying the convention 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 acknowledges and celebrates the Convention's success story through the publication of various interesting books in its Heritage Studies book series.

Publication: Intangible Heritage

Intangible Cultural Heritage and Sustainable Development:
The Valorisation of Heritage Practices

The book "Intangible Cultural Heritage and Sustainable Development: The Valorisation of Heritage Practices" provides a systemic understanding of how intangible cultural heritage can promote sustainable development. Based on Pierre Bourdieu's "theory of practice", the book provides a model for the practical valorisation of intangible cultural heritage, e.g. in the form of cultural products, as a medium for identity formation and creative human expression. The model can be used as a tool by support groups and cultural communities to actively use the dual function of intangible cultural heritage as a driver and enabler for sustainable development.

Announcement

 

Dancing Practices – Researching Practice: Access and Archival Forms to the Cultural Heritage of Dance in the Focus of the Immaterial

Dance Practices as Research - Approaches to the Safeguarding and Transmission of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Dance

The UNESCO Convention on the Safeguarding and Interpretation of the Intangible Cultural Heritage is receiving increasing attention after 20 years of existence. In this context, the study aims to further strengthen this important intangible cultural heritage of dance and thus reinforce its importance within the framework of the Convention. To this end, this book presents an overview of approaches and methods for researching cultural practice, with a focus on the specific concept of the (in)tangible in dance practice.

 

Perspectives: Heritage and Sustainable Development

At the IHS, Heritage Studies is positioned as a critical discipline that derives interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary research questions and topics, explicitly from the constantly changing realities of daily life for the people of the world. This includes positioning the epistemological interest in the context of the world’s diversity, reflecting the cultural diversity in the approaches and methods of heritage studies worldwide without becoming arbitrary as well as developing strategies for the future, for example, for a sustainable approach to heritage. In other words, about the goal is not to gain abstract knowledge but to explicitly conceive heritage studies paradigmatically for human development and to work on this theoretically and practically through projects.

Project: Education for Sustainable Development

Young Climate Action for World Heritage

“Young Climate Action for World Heritage” combines the topics of UNESCO World Heritage and climate change in an innovative way in an educational project. At six UNESCO World Heritage sites, students in international teams deal with climate change. Using creative and action-oriented methods, they explore the question: How can we take responsibility for the sustainable preservation of World Heritage sites and for combatting climate change locally?

Announcement

Symposium „Kultur Erbe Aneignung“

From the 24th to the 26th of March 2023, a symposium was held at the Bauhaus University in Weimar, in which experts from research, teaching and pedagogy in the fields of heritage and architecture discussed the significance of architectural heritage against the background of current positions of critical questioning, reinterpretation, appropriation and reuse of power-theoretical and socio-critical discourses as well as local challenges. In a workshop on the project "Young Climate Action for World Heritage", the IHS presented strategies for communicating cultural heritage to young people in the context of Education for Sustainable Development.

© Picture: Bauhaus Universität Weimar

Project: 50 Years World Heritage

 

50 Years World Heritage Convention:
Shared Responsibility – Conflict & Reconciliation

The project "50 Years World Heritage Convention: Shared Responsibility - Conflict & Reconciliation" honoured the 50th anniversary of the World Heritage Convention by publishing a book and presenting it at an international conference. The book reflects on the past and the future of World Heritage, taking into account the values of "responsibility", "reconciliation" and "sustainability". With 61 authors from 28 countries, it also represents the global character of the Convention. The book presentation took place on the 4th of November 2022 as a hybrid event at the Federal Foreign Office.

Impressions

Impressions of the conference "50 Years World Heritage Convention: Times of Peace, Conflict and War”, which took place on the 4th of November 2022 in the Federal Foreign Office.

Photographer: Jayakrishna Bandla

HIGHLIGHTS

Lazare Eloundou Assomo (UNESCO), Conference "50 Years World Heritage Convention"

Joseph King (ICCROM), Conference  "50 Years World Heritage Convention"

Prof. Dr. Peter Stone (Blue Shield), Conference "50 Years World Heritage Convention"

Round Table: Sharing New Visions - The Future of the World Heritage Convention, Conference  "50 Years World Heritage Convention"

Young Climate Action for World Heritage

Quiz Welterbe

World Heritage Education

Student Video of World Heritage Muskauer Park