Political Imperatives in the Heritage Regime and the Emergent Collaborative Scenarios on the Ground: Case Studies from the Baltics
Political Imperatives in the Heritage Regime and the Emergent Collaborative Scenarios on the Ground: Case Studies from the Baltics

Summary/Abstract: This article studies the political imperatives initiated by the UNESCO-related normative instruments, and the emergent terms of engagement in the dynamics of collaborative participation, both on scholarly and community level. The authors share participatory experience and expertise in the field of intangible cultural heritage in policy-making and research, with particular interest in the aftermath of UNESCO ICH-labelling and list inscriptions. We reflect at first critically upon the progress and stance of decisions taken as well as the international discursive framework and debates where we have participated. We likewise contemplate the collaborative role of experts in the intangible heritage framework. In our comparative case study into the impact on local heritage processes in the Baltics, the post-nomination circumstance has generated novel community-driven and negotiated collaborative efforts. Both the Seto community in Estonia and the Suiti community in Latvia have found diverse ways of using heritage resources for their own goals, but also in their continued creative collaboration where a growing self-esteem proves to be a solid basis. This investigation links community participation to the issue of agency, and its creative capacity to constitute and reconstitute with a substantial effect of generating action. We have discerned various moments of empowerment and creativity in local responses to transformational social and economic processes. Our research results foreground the functional capacity of creative collaboration as agency of change, where innovation and right to hybridity become enabling qualities.

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