Intangible cultural heritage projects – National policies and strategies. The creation of intangible cultural heritage inventories

Abstract

The UNESCO Convention for the Safeguarding of Intangible Cultural Heritage of 2003 has established a new, holistic approach to cultural heritage, as well as a new set of administrative and legal instruments and strategies for identifying, preserving, managing and promoting intangible cultural heritage. The policy of intangible culture entails the conceptualisation of the elements of intangible heritage in the national cultural policy framework. Administration strategies and methods are often confronted with scientific contextualisation and various policies of representation and identification. Thus, while articulating the idea of the growing importance of intangible cultural heritage, the national authorities increasingly construct the national inventories through processes of worldwide networking and positioning through symbolic meanings such as “national issues” and “national culture”. This paper presents a brief review of administrative and legal measures and policies concerning intangible cultural heritage of some selected countries.