Internat J Cult Prop 12 (1)

Describes how the journal will expand its scope to encompass what is seen as the inherent tension between the terms `culture' and `heritage'. It is thought that on the one hand, culture suggests something dynamic: representing diverse values and practices of different social groups, which continually evolve as they interact with others and their membership changes whilst on the other hand, heritage (and likewise property) implies something more clearly defined and static: it refers to a specific object or tradition passed on from generation to generation with little to no significant change. Further, the difficulty in resolving these opposing forces -- change versus stability -- underlies why protecting, controlling, and possessing cultural heritage is so difficult to regulate in law, policy, and practice.

A paper outlining concerns about the fate of intangible cultural property in the context of the rise of the Information Society, which is seen as adept at stripping information from the cultural contexts that give it meaning. Efforts to preserve intangible heritage have tended to follow Information Society models by proposing that heritage be inventoried, then removed from the public domain and returned to the exclusive control of its putative creators. This essay reviews recent scholarly work and policy initiatives related to intangible cultural property, with an eye toward identifying their merits and flaws. It argues for a more ecological perspective, one that takes account of the unpredictable quality of information flows as well as the costs of attempting to manage them. Also explored are some of the difficult, unanswered questions about whether all intangible cultural heritage is equally worthy of protection.

This paper examines some of the complex issues that relate to the management of ``heritage'', primarily as such issues relate to indigenous populations and communities.