Research and science center
This book examines how visitors, researchers, and authorities perceive the value, authenticity, and atmosphere of heritage in historical cityscapes. It analyzes the narratives created by corresponding stakeholders and sheds light on how such perceptions influence decision-making regarding heritage management, heritage consumption, and the formation of the city’s image. more …
This book presents emerging research on methods and approaches for safeguarding intangible cultural heritage, with a particular focus on its relevance to design and the arts. Drawing on case studies from countries such as India, Portugal, Brazil, Australia, Thailand and other regions, the volume offers a global perspective on culinary tourism, craft heritage and community-based creative industries, highlighting how intangible heritage can support community capacity-building. more …
Announcement (will be published in 2025): Based on important UNESCO Conventions, this book provides a comprehensive overview of the legal and policy framework for the protection of cultural heritage in the Republic of Korea. Korea has ratified numerous UNESCO Conventions on the protection of cultural heritage and introduced the relevant national legislation. At the same time, some of these conventions have been revised in response to national challenges. In doing so, Korea has legally and politically ensured that the core ideas of the UNESCO Conventions are better reflected in the Korean national framework than before. This approach has served as a valuable reference for a number of other UNESCO member states to adapt conventions in their own countries. more …
This open access handbook is the first to take stock of and to provide a comprehensive international interdisciplinary review of developments in living culture since the Convention on Safeguarding Intangible Cultural Heritage began in 2003. It is based on an expanded concept of culture, as it has been used in UNESCO since the 1980s and accepted by more than 180 countries. The convention makes clear the significant role of the Global South in raising planetary awareness of the importance of intangible cultural practices. As in the coming decades, intangible cultural heritage practices will become increasingly important for sustainable and peaceful planetary communication, the book is a significant contribution to these developments. more …
This book provides a unique, in-depth look at three Indigenous World Heritage sites in Canada and their use for Indigenous empowerment and community development. Based on extensive ethnographic field studies and comprehensive narrative inter-views, it shows how the three First Nation communities presented in the case studies enforce recognition of their collective rights to preserve their cultural heritage and assert their right to political, economic, cultural, and social self-determination. more …
Vicky Kämpfe ABOUT THIS BOOK: Dance Practices as Research. Approaches to the Safeguarding and Transmission of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Dance This book contributes to the growing scientific literature on ‘intangible cultural heritage’ – determined by UNESCO to be particularly worthy of safeguarding and transmission – by advancing a theoretical-analytical framework for the (in)tangible cultural heritage of dance. By exploring the potential of the ‘intangible materiality’ of dance practice the book argues that implementing more …
Heritage creates identity and the destruction of heritage destroys identity. Therefore, individuals and societies are responsible for the sustainable safeguarding of their heritage. This is the focus of the most successful convention for the protection of our heritage, the World Heritage Convention, which celebrates its 50th anniversary in 2022.
more …
This book proposes a Metamodel for heritage-based urban development, based on urban morphology, governance theory, and the metamodeling concept of John P. Van Gigch. Building on international policies such as the 2011 Recommendation for Historic Urban Landscapes and the results of the 2016 Urban Habitat III Conference, cultural heritage is now regarded as a potential resource for sustainable urban development.
more …
Based on Pierre Bourdieu’s ‘Theory of Practice’ this book reflects and discusses the developmental potentials of intangible cultural heritage as formulated in the 2003 Convention. The Convention interprets intangible cultural heritage as ‘driver’ and ‘enabler’ of development, implying paradigms of sustainable and human development.
more …
The volume “The UNESCO Memory of the World Programme: Key Aspects and Recent Developments” responds to the growing interest in the scientific study of the Memory of the World Programme (MoW) and its core concept of documentary heritage, which have received little attention from scholarship so far. The volume, which is the sixth publication in the Heritage Studies Series, provides a first collection of relevant ideas, reflections, theoretical and methodological considerations for the study of the MoW Programme, offering a basis for follow-up activities.
more …
The book Going Beyond – Perceptions of Sustainability in Heritage Studies No. 2 is the 5th volume in the Heritage Studies Series, edited by Institute Director Prof. Dr. Marie-Theres Albert, UNESCO Assistant Director-General for Culture Prof. Francesco Bandarin, and Prof. Ana Pereira Roders, University of Eindhoven.
The book Perceptions of Sustainability in Heritage Studies is the fourth book in the Heritage Studies Series, edited by Marie-Theres Albert. In this book, the authors present the subject of heritage and sustainability, taking into account a paradigmatic, historic-methodological and disciplinary classification.
In the book 40 Years World Heritage Convention, the authors present the history of the most successful convention that has ever been adopted by UNESCO. In this publication, the authors provide the diverse backgrounds, developments and details of the Convention and support their discussions with a number of images.
The publication Understanding Heritage – Perspectives in Heritage Studies is the first in a new series. This series aims at systematizing many years of disciplinarily and interdisciplinarily led discourse. Through this publication, the paradigmatic orientation of the series, Heritage Studies, constitutes a contribution for human development.
At the centre of the collection is the question of how UNESCO World Heritage Sites reflect cultural diversity.