Handbook on Intangible Cultural Practices as Global Strategies for the Future

Handbook on Intangible Cultural Practices as Global Strategies for the Future

Twenty Years of the UNESCO Convention on Safeguarding Intangible Cultural Heritage

This book, published to mark the 20th anniversary of the Intangible Heritage Convention features with 45 authors from more than 20 countries a new highlight in our Heritage Studies series and is available as an open access book.

Christoph Wulf

Open Access | © 2025

About this book

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.

Keywords: living heritage, intangible cultural practice, safeguarding intangible cultural heritage, identity building through intangible cultural heritage, aesthetics and intangible cultural heritage, digital and post-digital culture and ICH, mimetic learning in intangible cultural practices, practical knowledge and intangible cultural heritage, resilience through intangible cultural practices, performativity of intangible cultural practices, participation in intangible cultural practices, global citizenship through intangible cultural practices, intangible cultural practices as strategies for the future, Anthropocene and practices of intangible cultural heritage, education through intangible cultural practices, community building through intangible cultural practices, human rights through intangible cultural practices


Table of contents

Introduction

Christoph Wulf, Living Cultures in the Anthropocene. Taking Stock of Initiatives across the World

I Living Heritage as Initiator of Transition

Susanne Schnüttgen, Living Heritage – A Contribution from UNESCO

Pier Luigi Petrillo, Living Heritage as a Global Public Good and Sustainable Development

Marlen Meissner, Giving a Voice to the People: Intangible Cultural Heritage in Transformation and Structural Change

Marie -Theres Albert, World Heritage and Intangible Heritage – What Connects it and what Differentiates it?

Thomas Schmitt, UNESCO’s World Heritage Convention, the Intangible Heritage Convention and the Masterpiece Programme. An Analysis of Mutual Relations, References and Distinctions

 

II Colonialism, Minorities, Inequalities, and the Struggle for Human Rights

Michael Omolewa, Emmanuel Orihentare Eregare & Rose Eyefujinrin Ebohon,

Africa’s Response to Intangible Cultural Heritage Convention

Nina Graeff, Notes Nobody Notes: Samba as Musical Heritage of African Ancestry in Brazil

Michelle L. Stefano, Threats and Approaches in Safeguarding of Intangible Cultural Heritage. A View from the United States

Lydia Kieven & Christoph Antweiler, Controversial Intangible Heritage in Indonesia

Kristin Kuutma & Elo-Hanna Seljamaa, Intangible Heritage and the Complexities of Inequalities in the Politics of Belonging

Eva Kuminková, L’ubica Vol’anská & Martin Andrade Perez, On Reaching a Consensus: A Paradigm for the Inscription of Elements on the UNESCO Lists of Intangible Cultural Heritage

 

III Identity Building, Participation, and Conflicts

Hanna Schreiber, Twenty Years of the UNESCO 2003 Convention for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage: Experiences from the Implementation of the Convention in Poland (2011-2023)

Stefan Koslowski & Julien Vuilleumier, Valleys Low, Mountains High. Embedding the 2003 Convention in Switzerland

Benjamin Hanke, Expanding Cultural Participation through the 2003 UNESCO Convention in Germany’s Multi-Level Governance System

Sophie Elpers, Making Sense – and Talking about Smell. Dynamics of the Implementation of the 2003 Convention in the Netherlands

Hahm, Hanhee & Yong Gu Kim, An Examination of the Developmental Process and Characteristics of the Korean Intangible Cultural Heritage Protection System

Anying Chen, The Special Way of Intangible Cultural Heritage Safeguarding in China and Some New Practice and Concepts

Viviana Polo-Flórez, What Contribution do Intangible Cultural Heritage Practices make to Identity? Global, Regional, National, and Local Perspectives. A Colombian Case Study

Hani Hayajneh, Against All Odds: Keeping Intangible Cultural Heritage in the Arab World Vivant

 

IV Living Culture in Aesthetic Encounters

Tiago de Oliveira Pinto, Music as Heritage

Vicky Kämpfe, Modern Dance Created in Germany. The Safeguarding and Creative Practice of Dance Heritage

Christoph Wulf, Intangible Cultural Heritage: Challenges and Expectations

Hartwig Lüdtke, Museums as Facilitators in the Safeguarding of Intangible Cultural Heritage

Julius Heinicke, The Glocal Self: Cultural Policy Concepts between Heritage and Future Using the Example of Berlin’s Humboldt Forum

Sharmistha Saha, From Communities of Belief to Artists in Performance: ‘Clear Enigma’ of Odin Teatret and the Pulluvas, or Three Transitions in Heritage

 

V Challenging Issues, Future Developments, and New Areas of Research

Gertraud Koch, Julia Rausch & Anna Stoffregen, Cultural Economies of Intangible Cultural Heritage as Modalities of Care. The Wealth of Networks, Community-Based Value Chains and Commoning

Benjamin Jörissen & Leopold Klepacki, Deeply Entangled, Never Alone: Intangible Cultural Heritage Practices in Post-Digital and Digital Culture

Suzanne Ogge, Threats to the Transmission of Living Heritage among Children and Youth. Social Media Use, Reflections and Suggestions from a decade of Capacity-building

Payal Arora, Metaphors for the Study of Digital Heritage Cultures

Cristina Amescua-Chávez & Montserrat Patricia Rebollo Cruz, Anthropology as a Catalyst in Living Heritage World-Making Projects: The Case of the Voladores Ceremony in Mexico

Manuel Trummer & Mirko Uhlig, Intangible Heritage as a Factor of Cultural Resilience in Rural Areas of Germany

Tomo Ishimura, Restoration of Intangible Cultural Heritage and Communities after Disasters: Cases of “Soma Nomaoi” and “Obori Soma Yaki” in Fukushima Prefecture, Japan

 

Editor and Affiliation

Christoph Wulf, Anthropologie und Erziehung, Freie Universität Berlin, Berlin, Germany

About the editor

Christoph Wulf, PhD, is Professor of Anthropology and Education, member of the Interdisciplinary Center for Historical Anthropology, the Research Training Group "Body Stagings (1997- 2006), the Collaborative Research Center "Cultures of the Performative" (1999-2010), the Cluster of Excellence "Languages of Emotion" (2007-2014) and the Research Training Group "InterArts Studies" (2006-2015) at Freie Universität Berlin. His books have been translated into twenty languages. He was founding secretary of the "Education Commission" of the "International Peace Research Association", president of the "Network Educational Science Amsterdam", initiator and chairman of the Commission on Pedagogical Anthropology of the German Society for Educational Science. He is vice president of the German UNESCO Commission. Visiting professorships and research stays in, among others: Stanford, Paris, Rome; Lisbon; Vienna, Basel, Stockholm, Amsterdam, London, Tokyo, Kyoto, Mysore, New Delhi, Beijing, Shanghai, Saint Petersburg, Moscow, Kazan; Sao Paulo. Main research interests: Historical-cultural anthropology, pedagogical anthropology, aesthetic and intercultural education, performativity and ritual research, diversity and emotion research, mimesis and imagination research; cultural education; Anthropocene research.

 

Bibliographic Information

Book Title: Handbook on Intangible Cultural Practices as Global Strategies for the Future/n

Book Subtitle: Twenty Years of the UNESCO Convention on Safeguarding Intangible Cultural Heritage

Editor: Christoph Wulf

Series Title: Heritage Studies

Publisher: Springer Cham

Copyright Information The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s) 2025

Hardcover ISBN978-3-031-72122-9 Due: 27 December 2024

Softcover ISBN978-3-031-72125-0Due: 27 December 2025

eBook ISBN978-3-031-72123-6Due: 27 December 2024

Series ISSN 2946-6059