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- Convenors:
-
Ioana Baskerville
(Romanian Academy - Iasi Branch)
Robert Baron (Goucher College)
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- Format:
- Roundtable
- Stream:
- Heritage
- Location:
- B2.44
- Sessions:
- Saturday 10 June, -
Time zone: Europe/Prague
Short Abstract:
This Roundtable will bring together scholars, community members and government officials involved with UNESCO ICH programs, articulating ideas for expanding the engagement of ethnologists and folklorists in policy, practice, and networking.
Long Abstract:
Non-governmental organizations represent a third sphere in society, possessing an independence and a relationship to stakeholders lacking in government and the private sector. Their embodiment of civil society is of especially critical importance for the ICH field, which has an outsized role for government. SIEF is uniquely positioned to provide leadership in creating Europe wide networks and a stronger collective voice for scholars, specialists, and community members for ICH activities associated with 2003 UNESCO Convention.
This Roundtable will include participants deeply engaged with ICH through NGOs, governments and the UNESCO secretariat. It will explore how SIEF could potentially act to convene and establish networks among diverse stakeholders from throughout Europe, providing collective representation of trained experts lacking in Europe as a whole. What are the unwritten norms of conduct and best practices of scholars involved in the work of the UNESCO 2003 Convention? How could this knowledge base be extended, adapted, and transmitted to students and emerging professionals in our fields? How could the status and experience of ethnologists and folklorists play a more prominent role in policy-making at both national and international levels, informed by scholarship in our disciplines and shaped by partnerships with community-based practitioners and culture bearers? Approaches to be explored include expanding our role as a forum for discussing scholarship, policy and practice; disseminating resources for policymaking and safeguarding grounded in ethnology and folklore scholarship, and developing ICH curricula for primary, secondary and tertiary education.
Accepted papers:
Session 1 Saturday 10 June, 2023, -Paper short abstract:
Scholars with an ethnological background often have different roles in safeguarding the living heritage under the UNESCO Convention 2003, which can be contradictory at first glance. Let´s discuss how diverse experiences provide helpful insight into the functioning of different processes.
Paper long abstract:
Dealing with a living heritage for ethnologists and folklorists can bring various kinds of involvement. Starting with the first long-term ethnographic fieldwork with and within the communities of "tradition berarers" as a university student, active participation in safeguarding living heritage within NGOs, work for decision makers and state institutions up to closer cooperation with the UNESCO Living Heritage Entity within the Evaluation Body or as a member of the national delegation within the Intergovernmental Committee to the Convention 2003.
At the meetings organized by the UNESCO Living Heritage Entity, be it training of trainers sessions, meetings of focal points or various working groups dedicated to, for example, the listing mechanisms of the UNESCO Convention 2003, the participants, very often scholars with an ethnological or folkloristic background, present themselves as someone who had the opportunity to experience to be on both sides. Interestingly, many perceive this involvement as opposing activities, resulting in various dilemmas.
In the discussion, I would like to debate the possibilities of bridging these imaginary two sides of the same ocean to find out if and how we can all be on the same shore.
Paper short abstract:
This contribution to the roundtable will discuss needs and responsibilities of scholarly engagement with monitoring intangible cultural heritage safeguarding at the local and national level and will explore fundamental and applied research experiences.
Paper long abstract:
The implementation of the UNESCO 2003 Convention for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage at the international level is a dynamic process that encompasses gradually evolving modalities for governmental as well as non-governmental cooperation. Nevertheless, and most significantly, an important change is often experienced at a local and national level. It may bring policy and legislative developments, and serve as a novel frame for self-reflection for heritage communities as well as researchers from diverse scholarly disciplines. The change brought by the Convention at the local and national level may result in thoughtful dialogues and farsighted decisions. It may also reveal conflicting interests, difficult pasts, as well as strengthened claims of recognition of cultural identities and respective rights.
This contribution will discuss in particular needs and responsibilities of scholarly engagement with monitoring intangible cultural heritage safeguarding at the local and national level and will explore fundamental and applied research experiences, including the implementation of the postdoctoral research project 'Intangible Cultural Heritage as Resource for Sustainable Development in Northern Europe: Rights-Based Approach' (No.: 1.1.1.2/VIAA/3/19/476).