Safeguarding intangible cultural heritage in the urban environment

Abstract

A recent evaluation report by United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) has asserted that: the concept of intangible cultural heritage (ICH) itself is quite new and its use has largely been credited to the 2003 Convention. As recently as ten years ago the term ICH was almost unknown and was only used by a small group of experts. Urban environments offer a variety of spaces that can host ICH and related transmission and training activities such as cultural centres, museums, libraries and theatres. Conversely, the move from a rural to an urban environment may also make it difficult to find appropriate performance and other spaces for the enactment of ICH. In an urban context, ICH frequently has a close interaction with the physical fabric of the city or town in which it is performed, practised and enacted, and examples of where safeguarding cultural spaces and places for the performance of ICH has become a question of major importance.