Transversal aspects of conceptualization of ‘intangible cultural heritage’, its governance, respective community involvement, and junctions to sustainable development have become part of research agendas, and scholars undertake respective public engagements and contribute to policy analysis. Such professional and reflexive research engagement comes with a reconsideration of the stances of researchers in relation to heritage related policies, strategies and institutional patterns. Researchers become part of discourses and practices of making, breaking, reinterpreting and transgressing heritage related public rules. This invites the questioning of the role of researcher, the research practice and its ethics, as well as the novel skills needed.
This special issue calls to reflect critically on the entanglements envisioned or discarded when professional research paths encounter complexities of the field of intangible cultural heritage safeguarding. We propose to examine how to engage with this field for contemplating agency of change, the institutionalization of knowledge, constructing and interrogating theories of practice, and contesting hegemonies.
The call also makes a bridge to an upcoming conference under the ‘Osmose’ research program, titled « Nommer/normer : approches pluridisciplinaires du patrimoine culturel immatériel » to be held in Paris, France this autumn, and sponsored by the SIEF WG. The call is intended equally to bring attention to the growing network of UNESCO Chairs active in the field of intangible cultural heritage safeguarding.
In addition to research articles, also essays and discussion papers are welcome. Contributors are kindly requested to submit their abstracts and keywords directly through the editorial system of Slovenský národopis/Slovak Ethnology (CLICK HERE) no later than June 30, 2021.
The selected manuscripts are expected no later than August 31, 2021. The text should not exceed 6,250 words or 45,000 characters, including spaces, notes and references, and should follow the Journal´s guidelines for authors accessible HERE.