ABSTRACT
On Friday 20 January 2006, Romania became the 30th country to ratify UNESCO’s Convention for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage, thereby allowing the Convention to enter into force after a 30-month gestation period (Smeets 2006: 1). Heralded as ‘ … a major step forward in the international efforts to protect the world’s cultural heritage’, the Convention sits alongside UNESCO’s 1972 Convention Concerning the Protection of the World Cultural and Natural Heritage (Matsuura 2004: 1; chapters this volume). What this means is that there are now three overarching categories of heritage operating at the international level: ‘tangible’, ‘natural’ and ‘intangible’. However, while the latter Convention remains a prominent international instrument, it is notable that England has yet to ratify or accept it – and it does not look likely that they will any time soon. Thus, while England prides itself on being ‘… the envy of the world’ (English Heritage 2003: 1; Thurley 2004: 19) in terms of its management of ‘tangible’ and ‘natural’ heritage, it seems rather less concerned with the category of ‘intangible’. From this, we might assume that for England at least, ‘intangible heritage’ is something set apart, assumed to deal with non-Western or non-European culture, and something that is ethnically, culturally, politically and socially distinct from the types of heritage associated with the categories of ‘tangible’ and ‘natural’. Quite the opposite, however, the aim of this chapter is to argue that
heritage is intangible (see also Byrne this volume). Moreover, we argue that the palpable discomfort with which intangibility has been greeted in England reflects a wider failure to recognise the cultural legitimacy of the concept. Drawing on an analysis of discourse, this chapter will illustrate the ways in which a particular Western discourse, which Smith (2006) has labelled the authorised heritage discourse (henceforth AHD), has worked to impede not only the possibility of the UK signing up to the 2003 Convention, but also formally recognising the relevance of intangibility within Britain, and England in particular. Moreover, this discomfort with
intangible heritage, which is illustrated with reference to interview data collected between 2004 and 2006, has implications for the way the concept of heritage is used in England, and the social and political work it does. The interviews used in this chapter were conducted with English Heritage and Department for Culture Media and Sport (DCMS) staff, in which they were asked specifically about the relevance of the 2003 Convention. These interviews are also supplemented with reflective commentary from practitioners associated with the World Heritage Centre and the Intangible Cultural Heritage Section of UNESCO, Paris, and others involved in the drafting of the 2003 Convention.
