Intangible cultural heritage, Europe and the European Union: Dangerous Liaisons?

This chapter gives an interdisciplinary analysis of institutional, political, and legal framework adopted in the field of implementation of the concept of intangible cultural heritage (as defined by unesco) in Europe as a region, on the level of the member states of the European Union, as well as on the level of the EU institutions. It is argued that the EU policy towards intangible cultural heritage is a ‘work in progress’, highly influenced by the still present Authorized Heritage Discourse as defined by Laurajane Smith (2016) and the ‘World Heritage’ paradigm. The great potential of bringing intangible cultural heritage on the EU level for, e.g., enhancing community participation in cultural heritage safeguarding or developing creative and inclusive sustainable cultural heritage policies has not been addressed adequately yet. On the other hand, Europe as a region proved to be highly successful in operationalizing the 2003 unesco Convention, e.g. as regards the presence on the Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity. This chapter seeks to find the reasons for this state of the art, as well as to identify challenges and inherent risks stemming from the possible greater visibility of intangible cultural heritage in Europe and in the EU as an organization.