Short Abstract:

This Roundtable calls to examine how to engage reflexively with the field of higher education and (intangible) cultural heritage, and weigh critically the entanglements envisioned or discarded when taking into account the emerging moments of power, participation or transgression.

Long Abstract:

The theme of SIEF2021 brings into focus discourses and practices of making, breaking, reinterpreting and transgressing rules. We propose to examine how to engage with the field of higher education and (intangible) cultural heritage for contemplating agency of change, the institutionalization of knowledge, constructing and interrogating theories of practice, and contesting hegemonies.

In recent years, UNESCO has acknowledged the importance of universities to further their cause. UN global activities are guided by the idealist principles of Sustainable Development Goals while the ICH organizational format pivots quality education and learning to appreciate cultural diversity and the role of culture in development. The 2003 ICH Convention Secretariat has sought ways to respond to immediate emergencies such as the pandemic crisis by sharing experience and collaboration. Academic associations and networks play an important role in higher education/post graduate programming and research into relevant knowledge production, policy analysis and provisional ICH-related employment. Policy analysis engages with the transversal aspects of conceptualization, governance, community involvement, and sustainable development.

SIEF fosters academic debate and critical inquiry on the impact of ICH related and other policies as well as research on the ICH safeguarding processes that have profound social and economic consequences. This Roundtable, whose conveners include Working Group members holding UNESCO Chairs in the field, calls to reflect critically on the entanglements envisioned or discarded when taking into account the emerging moments of power, participation or transgression.

This Roundtable is sponsored by the Working Group in conjunction with the 2020 SIEF Summer School Panel proposal ‘ICH on the Ground: The fine art of rules and measures’