The ambivalence in the ambiguity of UNESCO’s cultural policy remit: a structural description of the Common Heritage of Mankind in the Cultural Diversity Convention

Abstract

ABSTRACT United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) has adopted cultural Conventions since the 1950s, specifying aspects of culture that its Member States should protect and promote as the ‘Common Heritage of Mankind (CHM)’. This article argues that UNESCO has accumulated the concepts of the CHM in four cultural Conventions into the Convention on the Protection and Promotion of the Diversity of Cultural Expressions (Cultural Diversity Convention), making UNESCO’s cultural policy remit ‘ambiguous’. This article further posits that the accumulation of the concepts of the CHM into the Cultural Diversity Convention lies in a rhetorical structure; The rhetorical structure allows the Convention to set ambivalent policy agendas encompassing the protection of past culture and the promotion of contemporary cultural industries. A historical analysis of UNESCO’s five cultural Conventions demonstrates that UNESCO has developed its description of the CHM and the following policy ambit to respond to social changes in the cultural sector as well as the political relationships of its Member States and other international organisations. The discussion about the use of cultural description to extend UNESCO’s cultural policy ambit sheds new light on the ambiguity of cultural policy in the context of how to use historical knowledge of culture.