The aim of the UNESCO Chair on Intangible Cultural Heritage in Public and Global Governance at the University of Warsaw is to reflect on the question of what is considered – under what conditions and by whom – as constituting effective, ethical and sustainable governance of ICH.
Why heritage governance matters?
The debate on the proper governance of cultural heritage has a long history and engages different stakeholders at the global and public level. Global governance is founded on the presumption that all humankind shares common aims: peace and security, human rights and development that also correspond to the three pillars of the UN system. The understanding and assessment that governance has on the link between economic inputs and cultural heritage are of utmost importance for the actual preserving and acknowledgement of culture merits. In this perspective cultural heritage is increasingly seen as a global public good that supports the realization of all these common aims of the international community. At the same time the reflection on public cultural governance has faced two prominent shifts: a) from state-centered activities to a proliferation of civil society organizations that deliver cultural services and offer various forms of support to economic and social development and b) from professionally dominated to more citizens or client-based activities, often taking place within the new civil society organizations (Fischer 2000).
Questions that are asked on the topic of cultural heritage governance include: How should a given community – including international community – govern heritage resources? When heritage resources are considered to be public goods – and when they are not? What are the criteria for effective and ethical heritage governance? What will be the most appropriate tools and methodologies to address these issues? This is also relevant for the ICH governance and the 2003 Convention.
The obligation to pursue safeguarding efforts at all levels of ICH governance: local, national, bilateral, subregional, regional and international is expressed in Article 19 of the Convention and in the 12th Ethical Principles for the Safeguarding of the ICH. The question, however, on how to govern ICH and its safeguarding on all these levels is not answered by the Convention itself. Answers need to be sought in other related instruments, such as Operational Directives, Ethical Principles, national and local policies and regulations and in the practices developed by ICH stakeholders: the communities, groups, and – in some cases – individuals concerned. More case studies devoted to this topic are needed as well as tools and recommendations in this area.
How this project will discuss ICH governance?
This project wants to explore ICH public and global governance matters in the context of the MONDIACULT 2022 Declaration, Agenda 2030 and UNESCO’s Midterm Strategy 2022-2029. In order to do that it will apply theoretical lenses of (mainly, but not solely) Elinor Ostrom’s (1933-2012) concepts and approaches. It aims to analyse selected case studies through the lens of ‘the commons’, with particular focus on ‘heritage commons’ and principles of ‘polycentric governance’. This approach has been scarcely applied to heritage and involves integrating knowledge from 5 scientific disciplines: political science, law, economy, ethnography and computer science. Thus, it develops a deeply interdisciplinary approach linking it with new AI tools for the analysis of case studies and UNESCO documents.
Our impact
- Collecting relevant case studies and supporting discussions on lessons learned in this area, as well as to teaching, training and scientific research on this topic;
- Enhancing North-South-South cooperation with new university partners in Africa, Arab States, the Carribean and Europe;
- Creating a hub for synchronizing analytical efforts on existing governance structures, providing recommendations (on the basis of explored examples collected through the partners of the new Chair – related to the modes of inclusion of SDGs and gender equality matters into ICH governance) and trainings on the principles of effective, ethical and sustainable ICH governance (developing teaching and training courses devoted to sustainable ICH governance principles, based on collected case studies from partners of the new Chair)
- Providing interdisciplinary conceptual analytical studies on the impact of the applied modes of governance on viability of ICH by linking methodologies from 5 disciplines: political science & international relations, law, economics, ethnography and computer science, with the aim to answer the question on how to govern ICH effectively, ethically and sustainably, referring especially (but not only) to the Nobel Prize winner Elinor Ostrom’s concepts that has very rarely been applied to cultural heritage such as: the commons, polycentric governance, collective action dilemmas, socio-ecological ecosystems;
- Developing digital tools aimed at more equitable access to information and collected data in the project, referring to current developments in the AI and Computers Sciences.
Keywords
Intangible cultural heritage, Public governance, Global governance, Communities, groups and individuals, Ethical Principles, Sustainable Development, Polycentric governance