Japan’s heritage conservation policy and practice, as deployed through its foreign aid programs, has become one of the main means through which post-World War II Japan has sought to mark its presence in the international arena, both globally and regionally. Heritage conservation has been intimately linked to Japan’s sense of national identity, in addition to its self-portrayal as a responsible global and regional citizen.

This book explores the concepts of heritage, nationalism and Japanese national identity in the context of Japanese and international history since the second half of the nineteenth century. In doing so, it shows how Japan has built on its distinctive approach to conservation to develop a heritage-based strategy, which has been used as part of its cultural diplomacy designed to increase its ‘soft power’ both globally and within the Asian region. More broadly, Natsuko Akagawa underlines the theoretical nexus between the politics of heritage conservation, cultural diplomacy and national interest, and in turn highlights how issues of heritage conservation practice and policy are crucial to a comprehensive understanding of geo-politics. Heritage Conservation and Japan’s Cultural Diplomacy will be of great interest to students, scholars and professionals working in the fields of heritage and museum studies, heritage conservation, international relations and Asian/Japanese studies.

Kaufman, Ned. 1998. Heritage and the Cultural Politics of Preservation. Places 11(3): pp. 58-65.

Since the signing of the 1992 European Convention on the Protection of the Archaeological Heritage (Council of Europe) (henceforth the Valetta Convention), the Netherlands have been experimenting with the manner in which to implement its contents. The eventual choices that have been made came straight from an essential body of thought from the Valletta Convention: the archaeological record must be protected in situ as much as possible and should be an integrated and weighted part of spatial development (Willems, Kars, and Hallewas 1997). When the legislation (the revised Historic Buildings and Ancient Monuments Act [Wet op de Archeologische Monumentenzorg]) was finally enacted in 2007, archaeological sites became legislatively protected in zoning plans. Before a building permit is issued, archaeological research needs to be conducted. This integration of archaeology in spatial planning creates tension between the quality and quantity of archaeological academic research and spatial quality, which is strived for in the spatial planning and design process. This desire to improve spatial quality in the spatial planning process implies that archaeology, which is considered by law to be a condition in this spatial planning process, is to be one of the providers of that quality.

I’m here to talk about celebrating mountain heritage, its Facts and Fantasies – its Myths and Legends – its associations and meanings, or rather one legend in particular and its expression today. In doing so I shall touch briefly on such expressions elsewhere and possible tensions or conflicts that may arise in the management of such associations and meanings.

La prise en compte du patrimoine culturel immatériel occupe une position centrale dans les nouveaux défis auxquels sont confrontées aujourd’hui les diverses communautés culturelles. Françoise Lempereur resitue brièvement la mondialisation et la diversité culturelle et montre que, face à ces deux orientations de base, les réactions des communautés peuvent être radicalement opposées : acceptation ou refus des métissages et, dans le cas de refus, approche essentialiste ou évolutionniste. Cette dernière sacrifie le patrimoine au profit de modes, sous-tendues par de nouvelles technologies ; la première privilégie le recours au passé idéalisé, dans ce que l’auteur nomme une politique de « folklorisation ». Fort heureusement, certaines communautés réussissent un métissage positif et rajeunissent leur patrimoine grâce à de nouvelles formes de communication. C’est le cas de la municipalité de Clare en Nouvelle-Écosse, porte-drapeau d’une identité acadienne en plein essor. Facing the new cultural challenges: the Acadians of Nova Scotia Taking into consideration the intangible cultural heritage holds a central position in the new challenges confronting today’s various cultural communities. Françoise Lempereur briefly repositions globalization and cultural diversity and shows that, faced with these two basic guidelines, communities’ reactions can be radically opposed: acceptance or refusal of the fusion and in the case of refusal, an essentialist or evolutionary approach. The latter sacrifices heritage for the benefit of trends, supported by new technologies; the first emphasizes the use of an idealised past in what the author identifies as a policy of “folklorisation”. Fortunately, some communities accomplish a positive combination and revitalize their heritage through new forms of communication. This is the case of the municipality of Clare in Nova Scotia, the flag-bearer of a growing Acadian identity.

Deacon, Harriet J. 2012. Examples of community-based ICH transmission and practice needs being met by research and documentation projects. Report of the First Intensive Researchers meeting on Communities and the 2003 Convention. IRCI (International Research Centre for ICH in the Asia-Pacific Region), Tokyo: pp.28-31.

This article engages with the Association for Critical Heritage Studies Manifesto which argues that heritage studies is in need of a complete renovation. We do so by looking back to two earlier moments. The first when museum studies also called for a renovation, drawing on those experiences as potentially instructive for the immediate future of heritage studies. The second a debate within cultural studies on the value of engagement with the world outside of academia to achieve the discipline’s political aims. Thus, while agreeing with the questions posed by the Manifesto, we argue that rather than casting the terms of the debate in a way that positions the professional field as needing renovation from without, we might do better by fostering a more ‘organic’ sense of intellectual work, one that values engagement and collaboration rather than critique for its own sake. Our conclusion points to the importance of the teaching of heritage studies as a potential site for such a practice as well as more collaborative models of research practice.

Australian humid tropical forests have been recognised as globally significant natural landscapes through world heritage listing since 1988. Aboriginal people have occupied these forests and shaped the biodiversity for at least 8000 years. The Wet Tropics Regional Agreement in 2005 committed governments and the region’s Rainforest Aboriginal peoples to work together for recognition of the Aboriginal cultural heritage associated with these forests. The resultant heritage nomination process empowered community efforts to reverse the loss of biocultural diversity. The conditions that enabled this empowerment included: Rainforest Aboriginal peoples’ governance of the process; their shaping of the heritage discourse to incorporate biocultural diversity; and their control of interaction with their knowledge systems to identify the links that have created the region’s biocultural diversity. We recommend further investigation of theory and practice in Indigenous governance of international heritage designations as a means to empower community efforts to reverse global biocultural diversity loss.

Although heritage agencies responsible for the management of world heritage sites are being challenged to incorporate intangible heritage into the nomination, inscription and management systems, there is still very little attention paid in the UK to engaging diaspora and immigrant communities in these processes. The presence of such African and Asian communities in the UK dates back more than 500 years and they form a significant and rising proportion of London’s population. This case study describes a major initiative undertaken by the office of the mayor of London in 2003–2006 that sought to embed the cultural heritage rights of African and Asian diaspora communities into the management of the city’s heritage spaces in a way that aimed to ensure that their heritage is seen as part of the national story. This London case thus provides very valuable lessons for the management of world heritage sites in the UK and Europe.

En este artículo presentamos la relación que existe entre el turismo y el tipo de lenguaje utilizado en una oferta determinada, en este caso, la gastronómica. El lugar de estudio es Playa Jacó, conocido centro turístico del Pacífico costarricense. La información se registró mediante trabajo de campo y se analizó con un enfoque interdisciplinario (lexicografía y antropología lingüística). Se presentan varias clasificaciones del léxico según la lengua del nombre de los restaurantes, refresquerías y afines; la lengua del menú; la procedencia de las comidas, para estimar el nexo con el patrimonio local.