Description
Book SynopsisThis book explores the international legal framework developed by UNESCO to identify and protect world heritage and its implementation at the national level. Drawing on close policy analysis of UNESCO's major documents, extensive professional experience at UNESCO, as well as in-depth analyses of case studies from Asia, Europe, and Latin America, Sophia Labadi offers a nuanced discussion of the constitutive role of national understandings of a universalist framework. The discussion departs from considerations of the World Heritage Convention as Eurocentric and offers a more complex analysis of how official narratives relating to non-European and non-traditional heritage mark a subversion of a dominant and canonical European representation of heritage. It engages simultaneously with a diversity of discourses across the humanities and social sciences and with related theories pertaining not only to tangible and intangible heritage, conservation, and archaeology but also political science,
Trade ReviewThis work provides an in-depth exploration of the basic concepts and mechanisms of the World Heritage Convention. As the Convention celebrates its 40th anniversary and reflects on its future, this book offers new insights into the reasons for its global success, into its prospects, and into its contradictions. -- Francesco Bandarin, ADG Culture, UNESCO
The World Heritage Convention of 1972 established a list of sites acknowledged by UNESCO to be of universal human value—World Heritage Sites. With the detailed knowledge of an insider to the heritage establishment and the critical perspective of an independent researcher, Sophia Labadi takes us through the key issues of how such sites can be compatible with cultural diversity, with notions of an authentic past, with sustainable development and tourism, and with social cohesion in the modern nation state. She finds fault with the implementation of the convention and its core value, while offering an astute resolution rooted in a more sensitive and pluralist cultural politics of tangible and intangible heritage for us all. This is essential reading for all concerned with contemporary heritage and the vital importance of the past to the present. -- Michael Shanks, Stanford University
Table of ContentsIntroduction: Dissecting Outstanding Universal Value Chapter 1: Theoretical Perspectives on Outstanding Universal Value Chapter 2: Outstanding Universal Value: International History Chapter 3: National Constructions of the Past Chapter 4: Cultural Diversity and Inclusion Chapter 5: Sustainable Tourism and Development: Realistic Outcome or Wishful Thinking? Chapter 6: Authenticity and Post-authenticity: Keeping It Real? Chapter 7: The Intangible Cultural Heritage Convention: Complementing World Heritage? Conclusion: The World Heritage Convention at 40 Appendix: Nomination Dossiers Selected Bibliography Index About the Author
