Strategies of protection and identification of intangible cultural heritage : actions taken within national cultural policies and the involvement of local communities

Bibliogr. s. 227-229

The UNESCO Convention for the Safeguarding of Intangible Cultural Heritage of 2003 has established a new, holistic approach to cultural heritage and a new set of administrative and legal instruments and strategies of 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, national authorities increasingly construct national inventories through processes of worldwide networking and positioning through symbolic meanings such as "national issues" and "national culture". The paper presents a brief review of administrative and legal measures and policies concerning the intangible cultural heritage of selected countries with a special emphasis on the community-based approach in the identification and safeguarding processes.