IJIH

The UNESCO Convention for the Safeguarding of the Intangible
Cultural Heritage (2003) recognises as living heritage cultural
expressions and practices that provide for the continuity,
dynamism and meaning of the social life of individuals and
communities. The organisation emphasises the need to
document and safeguard intangible cultural heritage (ICH) as a
source of people’s identity, which gives them a feeling of
belonging and represents cultural capital. One of the forms of
safeguarding ICH endorsed by UNESCO is the creation of
national inventories to catalogue the heritage and make it
accessible to the public. However, inventorying living heritage
runs a risk of essentialising culture and ‘fixing’ cultural
practices in time. And while it is only natural that the forms of
cultural expressions may change with time, the meaning of
those practices should be protected, for in it lies the cultural
value of heritage. This theoretical paper looks at language as a
vehicle of culture that gives meaning to people’s experiences,
while remaining a tool that adapts its form to changing
environments. Therefore, language can be considered a
repository and an organic inventory system for the living
heritage, as the latter is primarily contained in the linguistic
interactions of the people who produce it. Accordingly, the paper
advocates for a greater protection and promotion of vernacular
languages by assisting communities in developing them and
sustaining their local cultural practices.

‘Super-diversity’ presents the Intangible Heritage Convention
with new dilemmas for safeguarding intangible heritage. The
large influx of migrants in Western Europe has completely
altered the ethnic composition of all the major cities. It
completely overturns the notion of community and thus also of
intangible heritage. Starting from a specific case study, the
super-diverse city district of West-Kruiskade in Rotterdam, the
author argues that super-diversity creates new forms of social
belonging in which the diversity of intangible heritage is
celebrated as something to share. In Rotterdam, ethnic or
religious festivals such as Diwali, Keti Koti and the Chinese New
Year have evolved into communal festivals shared by all, in a
constant 'interactive creation of space'. Super-diversity
dynamises the concept of intangible heritage and the notion of
community which, more than ever before, should be interpreted
as a complex interplay of different stakeholders in a dynamic,
culturally-diversified environment.

This article presents the ‘soft power’ concept (Joseph Nye)
and explores its relationship with the concept of intangible
cultural heritage. Its main points of reference are thus the
UNESCO 2003 Convention on the Safeguarding of the
Intangible Cultural Heritage, the Representative List of the
Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity, as well as two
chosen ‘soft power’ rankings: Soft Power 30 and the Elcano
Global Presence Index. Member states of the European
Union, as well as countries occupying important places in
these rankings like the United States, the United Kingdom
or China are of particular relevance. The author points out
that a new kind of discourse has emerged alongside the
‘Authorised Heritage Discourse’ (Laurajane Smith) – the
‘Intangible Heritage Discourse’. She argues that UNESCO
plays the role of an arbiter in both of these discourses, and
subsequently analyses their possible impact on the position
of particular countries in the ‘soft power’ rankings.

This paper aims to investigate the complex nature of
participation, collaboration and conflict between craftspeople
and museum professionals in the context of museums
engaging with craftsmanship. Multiple research methods (direct
observation, semi-structured interviews, and documentation)
were employed, focusing on the case of the Arts and Crafts
Museum Cluster (ACMC) in Hangzhou, China. The findings
suggest that the initial participation and continuing collaboration
of the craftspeople was motivated by their receiving a
sustainable income, spiritual satisfaction, and social awareness
and recognition. The museum professionals were rather more
market-oriented, seeking to satisfy visitors’ needs and interests.
The different interests of the two parties in terms of participation
and collaboration resulted in several conflicts, which were
resolved by a combination of negotiation and compromise
between the craftspeople and the museum professionals.
Through re-examining the community participation approach in
the intangible heritage practice of contemporary Chinese
museums, this research highlights the importance of active
participation and collaboration between the two parties through
the continuing process of negotiation and compromise.

In September 2009, Cyprus applied to include Lefkara
embroidery in the Representative List under the name
Lefkara lace or Lefkaritika. Lefkara embroidery merges
different elements and has evolved over time without losing its
original character, technique and creativity. The learning
process starts at a very young age and takes a long time before
an embroiderer can become fully competent in the craft. The
local stakeholders are currently, or have been in the past,
actively involved in educational programmes related to Lefkara
embroidery, as a means of safeguarding. These programmes
have common characteristics and a clear focus on transmitting
to younger generations the knowledge of Lefkara embroidery.
The paper explores the different programmes and discusses
their success and potential, as by educating the public about
Lefkara embroidery, the stakeholders have made a significant
step towards creating an environment of appreciation to
tradition and national ICH.

Digitisation is a sustainable means of heritage1
preservation. It protects valuable heritage resources
from deterioration and provides worldwide access to the
diverse cultures of the world’s heritage, while ensuring
their safety for future generations. Digitised heritage can
derive either from digitally created documents or from
digital surrogates of similar documents. In OAPI States,
ministries in the field of culture, substitute and for,
tourism and several cultural institutions have adopted
digital heritage as a tool for safeguarding the
communities’ cultural patrimony. Data authenticity in
heritage digitisation raises some concerns based on the
fact that digitisation as a tool to express the content of
heritage products affects the entire spectrum of heritage
preservation. Issues arise from the multiple applications
of digital technologies on the heritage data used. From
converting the data used, to processing it with a different
shape, character or design, there is a long list of ways in
which the authenticity of a digitised heritage work could
be affected. Digital technologies could negatively affect
the information environment by allowing the processing
of inauthentic data. In this context, Mira Burri describes
the process of the digital reduction of material to zeroes
and ones through which the digital representation
radically modifies the characteristics of the content. One
click of the mouse can create perfect copies, transform,
alter, or create multifaceted adaptations of the heritage
data; this constitutes a tremendous threat to the data’s
authenticity. If no appropriate legal boundaries are set,
this invasive tsunami of new possibilities could deceive
the public about the authenticity of heritage data from
OAPI communities. This paper gives a pictorial overview
of traditional cultural expressions in central and West
Africa and scrutinises the sustainability of copyright as a
means to enhance the authenticity of heritage data in the
course of its preservation in the digital realm.
First, this paper analyses the authenticity of heritage data
under ‘moral rights’ protection in the digital field. Light is
shed on the risks related to the digitisation of heritage
when no proper intellectual property measures regarding
the origin of the work in the digital realm are in place.
Then, the paper considers how adequate digital copyright
protection could constitute a way to protect the
authenticity of digital heritage and encourage the use of
digitalisation in the preservation of cultural heritage in
general. The paper concludes by making some
suggestions about how to balance the risks of digitising
heritage in a global world. An adequate system of
copyright law could make use of the new dynamics of the
digitally networked environment to promote the
authenticity of heritage, and also to promote the
mobilisation of cultural heritage through the use of
digital technologies. Finally, the establishment of a
protocol for the digitisation of heritage - with the goal of
preserving authenticity - is envisaged as a means to
serve the same purpose.

According to the 2003 Convention for the Safeguarding of the
Intangible Cultural Heritage of UNESCO, creating inventories
and making them accessible is a specific obligation for the
States Parties. These activities are complex and require
methodological tools to integrate the different
backgrounds, competencies and skills needed to succeed.
In this paper we will present a framework for the
complete management of multimedia information
systems related to Intangible Cultural Heritage, that we
applied to the design and implementation of the
Ethnography and Social History Archive of the Lombardy
Region in Italy. We describe the characteristics that
distinguish our unified approach, within a broader context
of the methodological design of web applications,
emphasising the innovative features of the online systems
developed. We present the environments for managing,
searching and browsing ICH data, with a final comparison.

The argan tree, endemic to Morocco, is generally regarded
as the last barrier against the encroaching Sahara desert.
For centuries, argan oil extracted from the fruits has also
played a unique role in the diet, rituals and personal care
of the Berbers, an ethnic group indigenous to North
Africa. In 2014, … argan, practices and know-how
concerning the argan tree was inscribed on the
Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of
Humanity, thus making the tree a rare instance of worldwide
natural and cultural interest. The aim of this paper is
to examine how the Berber women and the co-operatives
they form have helped in transmitting the wealth of
argan-related skills, knowledge, and material culture. We
conclude that several actions are needed to enforce the
safeguarding of this ICH element. Firstly, although the use
of millstones is integral to traditional oil-making, their
use is, by and large, not continued in the co-operatives.
Research should be conducted to document the
craftsmanship of millstone-making. Secondly, at present,
little attention is being directed towards the management
side of the co-operatives, but to ensure the widest
possible community participation, co-operatives must
strive to reach sustainable growth. Thirdly, the rising oil
price has caused many Berbers to be sparing in their use
of the oil. The government should keep a close watch on
the annual production and exports of the oil to further
analyse changes in consumption, and they must find a way
to bring the oil back into the life of the Berbers.

The author reflects on policy and practice development
concerning intangible cultural heritage (ICH), from the
perspective of cultural diversity as a part of the framework
of appreciation and objectives relating to the UNESCO
Convention for the Safeguarding of ICH (2003). The author
explains the current evolution towards a superdiverse
society, and determines that ICH is identified in the
preambles of the UNESCO 2003 Convention as a source of
enrichment for cultural diversity, of mutual human
understanding and exchange. The Convention has existed
for over a decade, making it possible to reflect on its
international implementation with respect to the aspect of
cultural diversity: i.e. what do we learn from the realisation
and interaction with the Lists and Register in the context of
the Convention, and surrounding debates? The author
examines how the choices and implementation of the ICH
Convention, developments in the field and the effects on the practice can be evaluated in the intervening years with
an approach of diversity. Finally, the author wishes to
formulate a vision and to foster reflections on ICH and
diversity (policy) with this. A plea follows to open up the
thinking around ICH and diversity, and thus to approach it as
diversely as possible; since a focus on an (often) ethniccultural
approach potentially creates the contrary effect from the
intention of the entire ICH discourse and ICH policy
development: a striving towards a more shared understanding
and exchange, and enrichment of cultural diversity and human
creativity.

The construction in Egyptian Nubia of the Aswan High
Dam in the mid-twentieth century motivated the biggest
rescue operation of tangible heritage that has ever been
undertaken in the world. However, no comparable focus
was accorded to Nubia's intangible heritage, albeit a
small team of ethnographers salvaged what they could in
a very short amount of time. Nubia is an ancient land
that stretches from the first cataract of the river Nile in
Egypt to roughly the fourth cataract in the Republic of
Sudan. At each of these cataracts there has been, and
will be the construction of dams, which will result in the
loss of the majority of the natural, material and cultural
landscape of Nubia. Knowing how detrimental dam
construction, and its concomitant displacement of the
inhabitants, is to the continuity of their culture, the
Nubians are initiating urgent safeguarding practices in
response. These initiatives are assisted by a project team
in the documentation, protection and promotion of
Nubian languages and intangible heritage. This paper
presents some of these current initiatives and highlights
how the project fosters capacity for the Nubian
community to act to keep their heritage alive.

My ambition for this shorter article is to add to an earlier
discussion (see Rodil and Rehm, 2015) about the interplay of
digital systems and the digitisation of intangible heritage. In
particular, I wish to sketch some conceptualisations of what
and how we can look at the digital systems (I refer to these
as artefacts) as having certain inscribed perspectives.
Meanwhile, providing some related literature, I show one
possible road out of the complexity (with a co-responsible
design known as Participatory Design), which emerges when
certain cultures design and build artifacts together with the
purpose of containing other cultures’ intangible heritage. At
the end I provide some questions for reflection, if one is
considering digitising intangible heritage.