Intangible Cultural Heritage and Participation: Encounters with Safeguarding Practices

participation of communities in the safeguarding of their own cultural heritage is a de fi ning feature of UNESCO s 2003 Convention for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage, separating it from earlier heritage doctrine that emphasizes the authority of heritage experts in conservation planning. Participatory safeguarding practices are central to UNESCO ’ s suite of ICH training and capacity-building resources, including the Register of Good Safeguarding Practices , Ethical Principles for Safeguarding Intangible Cultural Heritage (2015), and the Operational Directives for the implementation of the 2003 Convention (2018). But respect and involvement of stakeholder communities, groups, and individuals in decision-making processes and in the safeguarding cycle of documentation, recognition, and transmission happens in di ff erent ways in di ff erent contexts, and with varying outcomes. There is a clear need to critically analyze ‘ the participatory turn ’ and how community-led safeguarding happens on the ground as recommendations for best practice are interpreted and implemented by diverse actors. Alivizatou ’ s Intangible Heritage and Participation: Encounters with Safeguarding is of literature (see also that evaluates the opportunities and limit-ations of UNESCO ’ s participatory paradigm across a diversity of safeguarding case studies. Alivizatou is best known for her examinations of intangible cultural heritage (ICH) in relation to museum perspectives and practices, and Intangible Heritage and Participation understand-ably adopts a largely museological lens in its analysis of participatory approaches to ICH safeguarding. Positioning museums as key sites for community-led projects, the book draws on museum-related case studies of safeguarding interventions in the Netherlands, Belgium, New Zealand, Greece, Peru, Denmark, Sweden, and Japan.