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Paper-based works of art and documents of cultural importance kept in museums and libraries can show notorious signs of deterioration, including foxing stains, caused by fungal colonization. Some of the main chromophore agents of fungal origin that deteriorate paper and therefore affect paper cultural heritage both aesthetically and structurally are the group of pigments called melanins. Thus, knowledge of the diversity and features of fungal melanins and of the melanization pathways of fungi growing on paper is key to removing these pigments from paper-based works of cultural importance. This review provides an approach about the current knowledge of melanins synthesized by paper-colonizing fungi, their localization in the fungal structures, and their role in the deterioration of paper. This knowledge might contribute to developing new, effective, and sustainable strategies of restoration and conservation of historical documents and works of art based on paper. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Heritage is defined and maintained through complex and changing processes. In what ways might heritage scholars and practitioners understand dynamic complexities theoretically, methodologically and ethically? Through reflections on involvement in environmental and cultural heritage initiatives with Maya communities in southern Belize, this paper argues for an explicit forefronting of community aims and goals in heritage-focused project design and implementation. It demonstrates how cultural anthropologists involved in collaborative projects with archaeologists, non-governmental and/or community organisations may use ethnographic approaches to push collectively towards decolonial, community archaeologies. The challenges of ethnographers and archaeologists working together to document heritage past and present are critically and reflexively analysed, using frameworks rooted in environmental anthropology to capture the fluid and negotiated nature of heritage constructions by exploring what it means to live a 'good life' in Maya communities in Belize. The insights generated for developing a decolonising approach for future work of this type are also considered. By challenging what constitutes project 'success', and discussing the questions simultaneously posed and revealed by the long-term community projects detailed here, the paper argues for a more collaborative, nuanced and fluid conceptualisation of what constitutes heritage, and who is served by its documentation and dissemination. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Heritage-making's intrinsic dissonance has been thoroughly established in the field of critical heritage studies, and yet it is a reality that continues to be obscured in heritage practice in settler colonial cities. Authorised heritage discourse continues to project existing state-led systems of heritage-making as a self-evident 'public good' for current and future generations. In settler colonial cities, this increasingly includes attempts to incorporate Indigenous views and values into its framing. However, existing statutory processes that uphold normative approaches prove resilient to change. Continued prioritisation of tangible artefact amid private property rights impairs the heritage field's ability to acknowledge alternative possibilities and to genuinely engage in decolonising transformation. This paper examines three cases where heritage dissonance has erupted into protest and protection action outside of the authorised heritage discourse: the Old Swan Brewery in Perth, Western Australia; Ihumātao in Auckland, New Zealand; and the West Berkeley Shellmound in Berkeley, California. It analyses the contestation of values that led to protest action, what 'authorised' attempts were made to heritagise each case and to what result. In so doing, the paper demonstrates how existing processes of statutory heritage-making continue to be inadequate for Indigenous and emerging heritage aspirations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper I look at the widespread, and often much debated, abandonment and reuse of church buildings in the Netherlands. I focus on the striking case of the Roman Catholic Chassé Church that, after years of being left abandoned, was converted into the Chassé Dance Studios and Hotel. Based on ethnographic fieldwork at the site, I show that the transformation process of the Chassé Church took place within a field of contestation in which different groups involved, articulated distinct modes of understanding the site and attributing it with value. I argue that these registers of valuation all centre in important ways on notions of home. Consequentially, while the repurposing of the church building represents the loss of a home for some, it has been co-opted as an instrument of home-building by others. For the latter, the site has played an important role in their quests for local belonging, feeling at home in the neighbourhood and, to some extent, delineating a national culture. By tracing such emotions of not only attachment and belonging, but also loss and nostalgia, this paper calls attention to the everyday affective dimension of processes of religious heritage making. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on the live music industry have received much attention, little consideration has been given to regional music production clusters more broadly. Evaluating the impacts of the pandemic on the music economy of North West England, this paper identifies key areas of support required as music businesses transition into a digitally-orientated post-COVID period. Findings demonstrate the ways in which the pandemic encouraged or forced music businesses to innovate with new digital ways of showcasing, promoting and distributing music. Yet, while digitalisation offers many opportunities, these are often difficult for businesses to capitalise upon. The paper argues the need to place business support at the heart of local cultural policy. More specifically, the paper makes the case for a soft institutionalist approach whereby local policymakers, the market and civil society work together to generate and distribute crucial resources of human, financial and social capital. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Established in 1951, the Children's Film Foundation (CFF) contributed to the growth of children's film culture in Britain. This paper aims to show how the CFF's active involvement of public authorities, film industry organisations and educationalists resulted in partnerships between them and in the growing production of children's films in Britain. Drawing on under-investigated archival materials, this paper argues that the Advisory Council of the Children's Film Department and Children's Entertainment Films, precursors of the CFF, offered significant platforms for mediation between public authorities, industry organisations and educationalists, and for shaping new beliefs about child audiences and children's cinema, which resulted in both the film industry's and educationalists' support for, and commitment to, producing films with entertaining and educational values. The case study demonstrates how the CFF overcame a commerce – culture dichotomy. It therefore offers a more nuanced understanding of state–market–civic relations in British cultural policy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The study aims to clarify how social positioning and modes of cultural participation shape the meanings people attach to the European Capital of Culture Wrocław 2016 initiative. The authors analyse both quantitative and qualitative evidence for narratives on ECOC, drawing on data collected in a survey (N = 1000) in 2017 and qualitative group interviews (10 FGIs) in 2016 and 2017. A literature-based narrative on the ECOC legacy is first reconstructed as a point of reference. Local perspectives on ECOC 2016 are derived from a representative survey and in-depth qualitative analysis to reveal bottom-up perspectives on what ECOC 2016 was. The paper examines the relationship between ECOC's values and the socioeconomic and sociocultural characteristics of city residents who support and oppose it, to determine how ECOC's values are related to class dimensions of social positioning and modes of cultural participation. The paper concludes that ways of understanding and narrating ECOC are derived primarily from cultural practices. Socio-demographic variables are of secondary importance. Both affirmative narratives of ECOC's achievements in cultural policy and critical accounts can be viewed as informative markers of who and how perceives cultural policy successes and failures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The extent to which Cultural and Creative Industries (CCIs), as policy concepts, are globalized, has been a matter of debate. This paper engages with the debate while seeking to move beyond the binary division of global and local scales of analysis. Empirically, it examines the emergence and politics of CCIs in Vietnam, with a focus on its connection with the implementation of the UNESCO 2005 Convention. The paper explores the complexity of the policy translation process, which shows the degrees to which neoliberal ideas can be translated in a post-socialist context. It also examines the role of UNESCO and questions the consistency of its position against the commodification of culture. Conceptually, it brings together different approaches to policy translation from language studies, Science and Technology Studies (STS), and postcolonial studies. The paper suggests that this interdisciplinary framework can further the understanding of both paradigmatic and pragmatic dimensions of policy travel. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we examine the use of intangible cultural heritage as a vehicle for soft power in the service of geostrategic competitions between Iran and Turkey, two regional powers in West Asia. We focus on two significant trans-regional instances of intangible cultural heritage relevant to both countries: the mystic poet Rumi and the New Year's celebration of Nowruz. We draw on theories in political science and cultrual heritage as well as a host of sources in Persian, Turkish, and Azerbaijani, to demonstrate how heritage is mobilised concurrently as a nation-building device and a tool for soft power in international relations. We conclude by suggesting that, despite strong grounds for its claims, Iran's response in this competition has been reactive rather than proactive. Overall, the paper contributes to the scholarship on soft power and heritage diplomacy by presenting the first comparative analysis of cases of shared intangible heritage in West Asia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper aims to make a conceptual contribution to the role of the International Baccalaureate Organization (IBO) in regard to global education within state global heritage (multicultural) schools – using England as a representative example – in an age characterised by epistemological, historical and cultural securitisation. This paper recruits ideas and concepts taken from Lefebvre and Bourdieu in a discussion focussed on the IBO's potential role in resistance to the dominant neoliberal imaginary and cultural securitisation. However, in order to be a force for democratisation, the IBO must itself democratise through a reconceptualisation of the school spaces it operates in/produces. It will also involve a process of reassessing its notion/positioning of what constitutes symbolic (and therefore valuable) cultural capital. This will mean untethering global education from the International Baccalaureate Diploma Programme. This paper highlights the possibility of a new space for global education, operationalised by moving beyond the 'IB school' to the potential of the more informal IB supported school. It is argued here that the IBO has the potential to galvanise a new wave of inclusive global education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Across Eastern Germany, many castles and stately homes were used as shops, schools or community buildings during the GDR. Since the 1990s, many of them have been turned into museums. This paper discusses the challenges of dealing with the history of socialist reuse in East-German heritage buildings comparing the former Prussian castles of Schönhausen (Berlin) and Rheinsberg (Northern Brandenburg). The comparison is based on five in-depth semi-structured interviews providing insights into the considerations of curatorial decision makers. It shows that there is still a high sense of uncertainty in how to address the GDR past, in particular when the role of the building was not clearly political. Personal recollections of the recent past lead to uneasiness in addressing this part of history. At the same time, the paper shows how attitudes have changed over time. Today, the GDR past is increasingly seen as an opportunity to connect to a wider audience and foster a more participatory and democratic memory culture. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

South Africa is rapidly obliterating its cultural resources and indigenous values. Particularly, this is the case in rural South Africa where manifestations of socio-economic declensions are evident. However, a number of the policies that are meant to enhance rural development lack a cohesive strategy that is based on culture-based theoretical frameworks. The paper argues that the conspicuous disregard to address rural development and its concomitant socio-economic challenges in the Revised White Paper on Arts, Culture, and Heritage, 2017, by the Department of Arts and Culture (DAC), now (DSAC); poses a great threat to sustainable rural development [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

World Heritage serial properties are groupings of several heritage component parts that share common themes and values. This paper examines how these serial properties, as well as their individual component parts, are influenced by serial interpretive dynamic, and how this dynamic affects on-site interpretation. We demonstrate these issues through the Israeli serial property inscription of the Biblical Tels – Megiddo, Hazor, Beer-Sheba (2005). We chart the revisions along the inscription process to point out the presence of an interpretive dynamic. We describe interpretive dynamic as the effect of the justifications of the nomination over heritage significance and interpretation, both within the realm of World Heritage and in each heritage property locally. This paper concludes that interpretive dynamic is an inevitable part of the serial process. We argue that the dynamic represents a gap between the frequent use of series as an inscription catalyst and their essence as value-oriented constructs. Considering this, we criticise the overuse of serial inscriptions and call for a revised definition that re-addresses the important place of interpretation in this process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Phad Tradition as a part of visual culture is a performative, ritualistic, audio-visual folk craft of Rajasthan, India. Its cult following is based on its regional Gods, such as Papuji and Devnarayan Ji. Phad Tradition can be broadly divided into three aspects as narratives (tales, myths), paintings (visual), and performance (audio). Phad Paintings has a unique visual language that is painted on muslin fabric (sacred textile) by the Chippa community from Bhilwara, Rajasthan, and are recited by priest singers locally known as Bhopa and Bhopi in form of elaborated performances. The lesser-known Phad Tradition is a part of Indian cultural heritage, yet many communities engaged in this craft-making are perhaps struggling socially and economically. The aim of the current review is to bring different literature resources and discourses on the subject matter and provide a comprehensive knowledge of the traditions with future scope of research. With this reference, the scoping review was conducted by deploying electronic (Web of Science, Scopus, and Google Scholar) and non-electronic (library resources) searching. A total of 70 papers were included to achieve the intended goal. These 70 papers were further divided into three categories based on the relativity of the subject matter. The review established that there are different paradigms where the subject has not been explored extensively. Hence, the review might encourage researchers and designers to engage with the subject from different perspectives to build further knowledge. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This literature review surveys published research that aims to foster blind and visually impaired (VI) people's engagement with cultural heritage. The reviewed papers cover a broad area of methodological approaches, outlining challenges and solutions for empowering VI people to enjoy cultural heritage sites and museums, mainly with the use of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT). Fifty (50) papers are included in this survey, published between 2008 and 2021. They mostly focus on multisensory, multimodal and interdisciplinary, ICT-based assistive human-centered computing approaches. These methods often optimize the VI user experience through an effort to gain an in-depth understanding of this special group's needs. Moreover, several publications include user evaluations and empirical studies. Findings suggest that approaches tend to become more complex, multimodal, and multidisciplinary as time progresses. This leads to a discussion and conclusions suggesting future research directions in this domain. The proposed way forward relates to a synthesis of methodologies, scientific domains, and approaches into a more holistic, comprehensive, and synergetic model. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Critique of instantiated discourses and practices seems to have ushered in an interregnum, a pause wherein a crisis of meaning ensues. This pause provides an opportunity, a space for new forms of reflection and novel formulations about what it is to be human. This special issue introduces a collection of papers representing a rich tapestry of feminist, decolonial, psychoanalytic, queer, and clinical insights which pave inroads into making sense of and transforming possibilities for being and practicing. The papers in this issue coalesce around three dimensions and commitments: (1) recentering marginalized epistemology, (2) reconfiguring ontological assumptions, and (3) providing possibilities for being and practice beyond the foreclosures of hegemony. In so doing, the authors provide scholarly and clinically sophisticated resources for navigating cultural territory where conventional and mainstream meanings and methods are in significant flux. Each of the pieces in this special issue was presented in the "Gender and Sexuality" track at the Psychology and the Other Conference (2023). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

For the past century, Mexico has tightly managed its heritage resources to emphasise the achievements of Prehispanic civilisations which contribute to national patrimony. Public interest in these great civilisations has fuelled an impressive national archaeological programme that has resulted in cutting-edge research and sometimes helped elevate the status and visibility of living indigenous communities. However, nationalist narratives of the past tend to be somewhat monolithic, and in the case of Mexico, they have emphasised hierarchical, exploitative states with powerful, urban capitals. The social value of Aztec identity and icons has become so potent that even in places with unique archaeological signatures and their own exceptional histories, local heritages are often intertwined with the Aztec narratives. This paper analyses two modern monuments in the small central Mexican town of Xaltocan, reflecting on long-term and recent developments in the region that have influenced the perceived social and political values of narratives of the past and the identities connected to them. Based on these analyses and drawing on interview responses from current residents, I argue that the monuments are important testaments to the complex ways that locals conceptualise and strategically articulate their heritage. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper I focus on designations of 'our culture and heritage' that defend practices and symbols of religious majorities. I consider the entanglement of nationalist narratives, secularity and the 'us' in the claims of social actors and public discussions about culture and heritage. What is understood as being religious and what is culture/heritage is dependent on the social actors involved, their position in society and the interpretive frameworks available to them. I consider the following questions: How are culture and heritage used in legal and public discourse to justify the continued presence of such symbols and practices in Christian majority countries in the West? What are the religious histories implicated in this process? Who is imagined to be included when crosses and prayers are staked out as 'our culture and heritage'? What is the relationship between culture and heritage and national imaginaries? Ultimately, as religious majorities see their numbers dwindle and power relations shift, the attempt to imbricate religious practices and beliefs in public spaces and rituals is quite possibly a translation of the religious to the secular. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the politics of religious patrimony by comparing two cases where the heritagization of religious sites results in feelings of loss and estrangement rather than return and restoration. We show how shrines can function simultaneously as public and civic places of religious assembly but also as material and sensorial expressions of ambivalent forms of belonging and un-belonging – to the past, to a territory, to a religious denomination, to a domestic environment associated with childhood or previous generations. One case is of Greek Cypriots as they travel to a renovated monastery located in territory lost to them in 1974 after the island's division. Encounters with the monastery are inflected by a broader, uncanny feeling of reentering a landscape that is familiar yet also estranged, studded by former childhood homes and villages now inhabited by others. The other case follows the experiences of Roman Catholics as they engage with the Christian pilgrimage site of Walsingham in the English county of Norfolk. The site now embodies a fractured heritage and pilgrimage space that recalls spiritual, material and cultural loss extending beyond biographical memory into the time of the Protestant Reformation. In both cases, ambiguities of 'possession' are provoked by forms of heritage restoration that embody but also obliterate memory in ways deemed to be deeply problematic by some populations. We argue that possession in these terms has economic and legal associations, referring to ownership of places and things, but it also points to situations where people are filled with an abiding and at times obsessive sense of the continuing urgency of the unsettled past. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

AbstractCare experienced students are one of the most under-represented groups in higher education (HE) in the UK. Research in this field has sought to understand why some care experienced young people successfully transition to higher education and achieve good outcomes in it, despite experiencing considerable adversities and inequalities. To date, there has been scant detailed attention to the role of students’ wider social contexts in their transitions to university. Drawing on the voices of 14 care experienced students and graduates from UK universities, the paper highlights the role of their learning identities and social and cultural capitals and resources in their transitions to HE. The data provides an opportunity to critique individualising accounts of successful transitions to HE which have foregrounded notions of resilience or self-determination, by highlighting the role of wider social circumstances in care experienced students’ higher education decisions and transitions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As cultural carriers of intangible cultural heritage (ICH), practitioners are key stakeholders in its inheritance and tourism use. Master-apprentice transmission is a major mechanism of generational inheritance. This paper examines ICH masters and apprentices at the Arts & Crafts Museum of Hangzhou, China, and analyzes the cultural composition of handicraft ICH and its intergenerational evolutionary mechanisms. Semi-structured interviews with two generations of practitioners and participant observation were undertaken. Research results reveal that intergenerational evolution involves multifaceted stakeholder interactions centred on practitioners with the support of government, management of the museum and participation of visitors. With patterns of family and master-apprentice inheritance, two generations of practitioners facilitate the evolution of handicraft ICH though both co-creations and conflicts. Second, six cultural attributes for handicraft ICH as of material, pattern, shape, technique, image and system are identified to visualise the process of intergenerational evolution. Third, driven by internal and external factors, ICH evolves through tracks of inheritance, selection and variation as presented through the above six cultural attributes. Moreover, the interdependence of cultural elements highlights the heritage framework of handicraft ICH and reflects the fluidity of authenticity. Accordingly, theoretical contributions and future research directions are offered for the sustainable development of handicraft ICH. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the alarming rise in intercommunal conflicts worldwide, knowledge regarding post-conflict cultural heritage issues must advance to help formulate effective management systems and policies. Through an Actor-Network Theory-inspired approach, this paper explores the actors’ role in protecting religious heritage sites abandoned by displaced communities. Discourse analysis of relevant literature and empirical data from exhaustive fieldwork documenting and categorising the use-status and preservation state of church sites from Northern Cyprus has revealed multiple networks of human and non-human actors and actants. Through ANT concepts of fact-building and translation, a flat platform has been developed showing the positions and interests of the conflicting parties with a focus on the neglected or underestimated dimensions of heritage protection. This platform allows heritage conservation to be viewed from a broader perspective and, in a sense, helps dilute the conflicting parties’ positions and make their stakes less critical. It also emphasises the importance of compromise solutions, including pragmatically negotiating potential alternative uses and actively integrating the local community with the stakeholder group to protect the heritage of the displaced communities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The range of global concepts of cultural heritage conservation has provided inspiration for China's cultural heritage conservation. China's approach to cultural heritage conservation has evolved from a focus on cultural relics conservation within urban planning to the formulation of specialized and multiple conservation planning. Furthermore, China is actively seeking ways to combine conservation planning and urban planning in order to achieve integrated conservation goals. However, the current practice indicates that 'multiple-planning integration' still needs to be improved to ensure the integrity of cultural heritage. This paper examines the influence of international organizations on the formation and development of China's multiple conservation planning. It also explores how heritage discourse has impacted the multiple-planning integration through a case study. International exchanges have a twofold impact: they improve the conceptual and technical development of China's cultural heritage conservation planning, and they guide its transition from cultural relics to historic city conservation. The primary effect of heritage discourse is that the demolition-and-reconstruction-oriented discourse has compromised the practice's integrity through multiple-planning integration. In the context of the localization of cultural heritage protection, it analyses the process and problems of the localization of cultural heritage conservation planning in China to draw wider attention to it. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, I explore negotiations of heritage in heritage forests from three case studies in southern Mozambique using oral history, field walking, video documentation and conversations. I argue that at local level there are processes of negotiation, authorisation, and legitimacy of heritage in forests. Such local forms of heritage negotiation and heritage discourse are authoritative and need to be recognised in both the planning of heritage conservation, and also in nature conservation. This recognition can strengthen local custodians to safeguard forest patches as locally protected areas, and opening room for heritage practitioners to be engaged by local people in the process of cultural heritage management. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

UNESCO's Convention Concerning the Protection of the World Cultural and Natural Heritage (1972) (Convention) provides the highest level of international recognition for outstanding universal heritage places. While the Convention has been instrumental in aiding heritage preservation, arguably it has also reinforced a problematic 'culture' and 'nature' division in protected area management. This is not a new observation. One solution that attempted to address this issue was the introduction of the World Heritage (WH) 'Cultural Landscape' category in 1992. Yet, as of 2023, there are only 127 Cultural Landscape properties of the total 1157 properties on the WH List (10.9%). Poor recognition of the category appears particularly acute in some regions, such as Australia-Oceania, and in this paper, we consider this apparent under-utilisation with a systematic review of the literature about the category. Our analysis reveals significant and concerning regional variations in both use of the cultural landscape category and in research about it. In our current era, when better recognition of First Nation heritage is demanded, and when greater protection of heritage assets is required, further uptake of the Cultural Landscape category has the potential to redress these pressing societal concerns. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Discussions surrounding digital libraries and their metadata have become less robust than before, given that creating and hosting digital collections have become the norm for most cultural heritage institutions over the last 20 years. Consequently, there are fewer discussions of how the characteristics of digital collections and their metadata have changed over time. This article showcases the evolution of digital collections and their metadata at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (UIUC) Library in the last 20 years. It discusses the growth of its collections and their characteristics, examines historical changes in the use of metadata elements, and explores responses to the changing nature of digitized and born-digital materials. Based on a large-scale data analysis of the digital collections and their metadata housed in UIUC Digital Library, the paper also examines the challenges and opportunities of the curation and management of digital collections and digital libraries in the future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper employs the concept of multidimensional heritage to examine colonial statues in Africa since the era of independences through transnational, diachronic, and multi-thematical perspectives. Colonial statues are viewed as transnational phenomena, with a focus on the African continent, emphasising the complex and evolving connections to former colonial powers in Europe. To capture the complexity of heritage uses, which is often best comprehended over an extended period, a diachronic approach is employed, and three periods are considered: colonial statues at independence (1950s to 1980); revival of (neo)colonial statues (1990s-2000s) and renewed contestations (since the 2010s). The paper also delves into various ways in which the past is used and interpreted through colonial statues, discussing aspects such as public memory, identities, diplomacy, aid, and justice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Heritage is a cultural process that is constantly exposed to contestation and therefore to reconstruction, resignification and repositioning. This paper goes beyond anthropocentric interpretations and recognises that heritage often involves other species in human-defined heritage practices. Based on an ethnographic approach, this study examines how contemporary practitioners of Charrería – a Mexican equestrian sport – embrace their intangible cultural heritage and problematise some of the interactions between the species involved. It evidences how Charrería participants navigate tensions between national identity and pride in their cultural heritage, on the one hand, and the ethics of involving other animals in sport and human heritage, on the other. The animal ethics issues involved threaten not only the social licence to operate of Charrería as a sport, but also the status and preservation of Charrería as heritage. This paper concludes that international and national organisations that institutionalise heritage play important roles in guiding efforts to protect and maintain intangible cultural heritage while addressing the changing ethical demands of interspecies relationships. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Previous studies have highlighted a lack of practical strategies in mobile learning that effectively enhance learners' agency with mobile technology. The paper aims to engage and interest learners in cultural issues by exploring the capacity of mobile technology. In this paper, we report the design and development of a prototype story game app, The Story of Praya Lane that combines use of mobile sensing, machine learning and augmented reality (AR) to engage users in physical mobile activities as part of a gamified, non-linear storytelling application. We took a multidisciplinary approach to involve cultural heritage stakeholders to preserve and share the cultural stories of the Kristang community in Praya Lane, Malacca, a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The results of user study show promise in promoting interest and engagement in cultural learning and reflection. From our findings, we recommend design guidelines for future interactive story games to support cultural learning and engagement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Climate change discourse ranges from an acknowledgement of ancestral prophecy to the most urgent crisis of our time. If the terminology – words, concepts, and expressions – of discourse is understood to reflect a writer's values, perspectives, and ways of knowing, then it is important to compare the terminology used by various writers to understand key value differences. This paper provides an initial exploration into the explicit and implicit differences in terminology surrounding climate adaptation planning from the perspective of federal agencies and Tribal Nations as represented in two climate adaptation guides. As the act of utilising the same words but in different ways will likely result in conflict, we also explored the links between the values-based differences in terminology with three policies – one written from a Tribal perspective and two that govern federal agencies' stewardship of cultural resources – to assess the implications for climate adaptation of ancestral heritage located on federal lands. It is important to note that the space to compare terminology between federal and Tribal perspectives is vast; though this paper represents only an introductory step into this space, the results demonstrate a clear need to develop a process of co-constructing a shared climate adaptation terminology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper provides a historical analysis of the peak and demise of the international view on cultural heritage. In the 1980s, cultural internationalism emerged as a conservative reaction against the adoption of the 1970 UNESCO Convention, which organises the restitution and return of stolen cultural properties. Internationalist and cosmopolitan scholars who have claimed that cultural heritage 'belongs to humanity', generally condemned restitution, and pushed back against the ratification of the Convention. The international view on cultural property became traditionally dominant in milieus such as universal museums, antiquity markets and some academic disciplines. However, over the past half-decade, the growing importance of research on provenance has challenged cultural internationalism in two areas. Firstly, research on provenance focused on art and archaeological crime has shown that artefacts allegedly excavated in the past are often the proceeds of recent looting, especially in conflict zones. Secondly, recent studies on historical provenance have revealed that many objects were collected using colonial violence. As a result, developments in criminology, postcolonial history, and indigenous peoples' rights have generally led to the retreat of cosmopolitan narratives on cultural property. Ultimately, this paper highlights that cosmopolitanism in cultural heritage has historically hinged on the imperialist past. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

At less than one percent of Malaysia's total population, the Orang Asli (Peninsular Malaysia's Indigenous Peoples) lack political clout; state nonrecognition of their land rights constitutes a fundamental reason for the economic and social ills faced by their communities. This article examines the protection of Semai Orang Asli customary territories from a cultural heritage perspective. Drawing on a study of traditional place-names and oral history, it describes how forests, other than existing as the Semai ancestral domain, continue to be the lifeblood of Semai culture and economic production. The paper examines state-owned forest reserves and the role these play in Semai cultural continuity, including traditional livelihoods such as agroforestry and swidden agriculture. Forest reserves are on the frontier of resource extraction and forest conservation in Malaysia; however, because these comprise the customary territories of Orang Asli, they also signify the frontier of forest-dependent Indigeneity. The paper weaves a narrative of Semai forest dependence, and concludes with a discussion of the prospects for a World Heritage Cultural Landscape (WHCL) designation as a possible avenue for protecting Semai customary territories. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The lack of accessibility to the information associated with European built heritage is a significant factor of exclusion that precludes many European citizens from appropriating a shared cultural heritage. Nowadays, three-dimensional scanning, modelling, and rendering technologies provide many highly effective tools to virtually access the available digital heritage of many European buildings in different historical periods through images, videos, texts, libraries, or specific databases of information associated with historical-scientific knowledge. However, several factors, such as the availability of human, economic, and technical resources, the heterogeneity of the standards and the lack of regulations, still hinder the possibility of translating data into usable content for a wider audience and the chances of creating collaboration between professional experts and scholars. Considering that, the paper focuses on defining the User Experience (UX) of INCEPTION's web platform, a European-funded multidisciplinary research project that has adopted new web technologies to develop open-source three-dimensional models of cultural heritage buildings for digital architectural conservation. The paper evaluates the importance of adopting a User-Centred Design (UCD) approach and involving stakeholders and end-users throughout the design development process, as they actively contributed to fostering more accessibility and inclusiveness for the final INCEPTION's web configuration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The colonial monographs on Naga peoples and the colonial appropriation of artefacts in north-east India enhanced anthropological knowledge in Europe. This paper asks how far the 'decolonising the museum' approach can be applied in studying Naga collections in European museums and in facilitating critical engagement with ethnographic objects from Naga communities in both Western and Indian museums. There has been a regeneration of interest in the colonial history of Naga collections among European/New World academics and in ethnographic museums in the late 1980s, mid 2000s and currently in Humboldt Lab (2015) and Forum (2022), and among Naga communities themselves. The paper examines how the contrasting historical trajectories, positions and modern consequences play out1. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper focuses on how the phenomenon of naturalized athletes has caused unprecedented domestic discussions on issues of national identity in China. Using online data collected from Sina Weibo, it discusses how the Chinese public reacted to prominent cases of naturalization of athletes in such different sports fields as men's football and a variety of winter sports. It interrogates how Chinese citizens view the possibilities and realities of this particular category of immigrants, and how the appropriate boundaries of 'Chineseness' have been debated and contested. The paper found that Chinese public reaction to naturalization of foreign athletes is overall mixed, which is conditioned on an ethno-racial view of Chinese descent, cultural heritage and linguistic affinity. The paper concludes with reflections on the ethno-racial foundation of the Chinese national identity and the challenges the country will face in a future of accelerated international migration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper discusses the role of the menhu in the protection of Wushu Intangible Cultural Heritage (WICH) and the possibility of developing it as part of WICH community, based on the analysis of the concepts of community in sociological theory, community in the Convention of Intangible Cultural Heritage. Menhu members master skills and enact their inheritance and reproduction for a long time and have a stable and continuous sense of identity in their inherited skills and cultural identity, thus constructing them as a cultural community. Menhu members always actively participate in the recognition, protection, and inheritance of WICH. However, due to the unclear identification of community entities and the criticism of the menhu as a negative culture in folk martial arts, its status and value have not been recognised in the protection of Intangible Cultural Heritage (ICH), and the identity of its community entity has not been clarified. This paper argues that respecting the complexity of folk martial arts cultures, and establishing a community recognition system that aligns with the realities of WICH, expressing approval and emphasising the subjectivity of the menhu is of practical significance for ensuring the continuous inheritance and dissemination of WICH. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The problems surrounding the loss and illegal trafficking of Chinese cultural heritage have intensified in recent times due to an increasing demand for Chinese cultural heritage and huge profits to be gained in the art market. While the Chinese mainland government has taken active measures to protect cultural heritage and combat the illegal trafficking of cultural heritage, two special administrative regions of China, Hong Kong and Macao, have not only failed to take similar measures, but have also functioned as key transit locations for the illicit trafficking of Chinese cultural heritage over the past three decades. This paper provides a comparative analysis of the laws related to cultural heritage between the Chinese mainland, Hong Kong and Macao. This paper argues that, while differences exist in these places, these differences should not be an obstacle to taking an integrated approach to cultural heritage in the region. There is a practical need for an integrated approach given the shared initiative of heritage protection and art market regulation. This paper argues that an integrated approach to cultural heritage is possible and should be pursued. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent decades, the styles and the role of monumentality have undergone significant transformations in the West, in line with wider trends of democratization and demystification of arts. Nevertheless, statues depicting human figures are still important landmarks in urban cultures. The statue wars that have erupted in several countries during recent years to challenge the racist, colonial and/or patriarchal vision embodied by many monuments, are a tangible demonstration of this. However, the topic remains understudied in the scientific literature. This research paper is intended as a contribution to begin addressing this gap by focusing on the dimension of gender in public monuments. We analyze statues in Italy depicting contemporary secular female figures. The aim of this paper is to research gender-based patterns or stereotypes that are specific to cultural heritage and urban design. The sample consists of 34 statues, distributed throughout the Italian national territory. A thematic analysis is conducted on the corpus integrating visual, narrative, aesthetic and sociological elements. The results reveal the existence of evident and widespread forms of stereotyping and discrediting of the female figure in Italian monuments, as well as the inadequacy of cultural policies, both in small provincial as well as larger urban contexts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ngalogat is a type of pesantren tradition in Indonesia that is increasingly recognized as a local cultural heritage. However, there have been limited studies on the local potentials and assets in Jambudipa Village. This paper aims to explore the transformation of the Ngalogat tradition into new commodities, specifically Gentur lantern crafts, as a contribution to heritage studies. The research utilized a phenomenological approach involving observation, in-depth interviews, and documentation. The results indicate that the preservation of Ngalogat as a Gentur lamp commodity is indirectly influenced by religious figures advising students (Santri) living in Jambudipa and promoting the iconic heritage to residents. This has led the local government to initiate One Village One Product program, involving locals in producing Gentur lamps. While the pesantren traditions were once viewed with suspicion during the Dutch colonial regime, the post-independence era has brought hope for preserving local cultural heritage as a national identity and a driver of national development. However, these potentials have not been fully realized as authentic crafts of the people. This study suggests that the government should assist local communities in nominating intangible cultural assets to the World Heritage Committee (WHC) to gain recognition and protection of local identity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Culturally modified trees (CMTs) are a unique form of archaeology and cultural heritage. There are several factors affecting the survival of culturally modified trees in Australia, and these will all likely be exacerbated by climate change. Boab trees (Adansonia gregorii), which are endemic to northwest Australia, have been subject to modification by Indigenous people both prior to and following the settlement of the Kimberley region by European and Anglo-Australians. Many of the potential impacts of climate change on boab tree survival are yet to be determined, but a range of new threats are emerging as potential endangerment. Through the insights of Indigenous knowledge, this paper discusses one particularly significant boab tree in Nyikina Country and how its demise may be linked to erroneous human actions in the recent past. This provides a unique perspective on how the complexities of climate change may be conceptualised through living knowledge and experience. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The agents of deterioration (AoD) offer a structured categorization of hazards to collections: they are a basis for risk-informed preservation management. In drawing up the AoD their creators were not ignorant of wider societal issues of concern to conservators, but they envisaged them to be part of a broader institutional activity located beyond the scope of preventive conservation. Within conservation, there have been discussions about additional agents: social, cultural, or political causes of loss. Their continued exclusion from the AoD may mistakenly be interpreted as a lack of consideration of such concerns. There are reasons to limit the scope of an institution’s preventive conservation system but not everyone agrees that those reasons are sufficient to justify this limitation. This paper is a discussion and disagreement by two authors. Henderson argues that dissociation should capture any loss of meaning resulting from any aspect of conservation practice, including cleaning, documentation, failure to respect beliefs, etc. She argues that dissociation from context may stop preventive conservators from identifying and respecting optimal traditional sustainable methods and techniques. Waller argues that the threat of losing context information about collection items should be managed as part of the wider cultural heritage institution’s role and resolved through its engagement with the community. He acknowledges that preventive conservation can contribute to understanding and mitigating this form of loss, but advocates that primary responsibility must be situated at a higher level than the preventive conservation remit. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Inherent biases, barriers to participation and other risks of exclusion thwart the UK cultural heritage sector's capacity to benefit all citizens equally. However, growing evidence bases – from local audits to regional insight reports to national censuses – ostensibly make it possible to identify these biases and risks in increasingly fine-grained ways, and from there to design programmes to engage individuals who might not otherwise participate in the historic environment. In this paper, we assess the efficacy of 'audience mapping' for supporting the inclusion of specific, underrepresented audiences in UK cultural heritage. The audience mapping methodology we applied in the Towards a National Collection project Unpath'd Waters (UNPATH) offers a case study. Sixty datasets (including audience interviews, web analytics, observations, etc.) from 18 organisations catering to maritime heritage were compared to support the project in reaching three audiences: visually impaired people, cross-disciplinary researchers and non-coastal communities. We review our method and its outcomes, then position our learnings against other audience mappings conducted by the Museum of London Archaeology for commercial clients. Like all audience methodologies, mapping has problematic dimensions that can heighten rather than halt inequities. We consider how to adapt approaches (e.g. to surveying, consulting and 'profiling' people) to sensitively respond. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In 1742, HMS Tyger, a 95-year-old, 50-gun ship-of-the-line, was the first of three British men-of-war to sink in the Florida Keys during the War of Jenkin's Ear. Lost while menacing Spanish shipping transiting the Straits of Florida, Tyger and its 300 crew ran aground and were marooned for 66 days in what is now Dry Tortugas National Park in the United States. One site identified and partially documented by members of the U.S. National Park Services Submerged Cultural Resource Unit (NPS SCRU) in the mid-1990s was only tentatively identified as Tyger based on preliminary evidence. This paper presents new findings based on recent historical and archaeological research to prove that a foreign warship perished within what would become one of the most isolated National Parks in the United States. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The discovery of the sea route around the Cape by Vasco da Gama in 1498 opened the maritime trade between Europe, East Africa and India. At this time, Mozambique Island played a significant role mediating this maritime network. As a result, an impressive amount of underwater cultural heritage was created, but it was heavily impacted over the last decade by commercial salvage activities. In the aftermath of the impacts from treasure hunting, this paper presents an on-going (re-)interpretation and assessment of indicative archaeological artefacts recovered from the Nossa Senhora da Consolação wreck (1608). The on-going (re-)interpretation is based on comparative analysis with artefact assemblages recovered in other contemporary shipwrecks and terrestrial sites around the world. Results suggest that Nossa Senhora da Consolação was a ship integrated in global trading networks, which met its fate at Mozambique Island due to commercial competition and access to the strategic coastal position between the Portuguese and the Dutch. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cultural heritage and transitional justice both seem to be established terms with fixed connotations: the former of universally valued and appreciated cultural objects and the latter of processes related to replacing a non-democratic regime with a democratic one. The social, political and legal realities of actual transitions and cultural objects caught in their midst, however, are much more complex. One such particular case was the Iranian Revolution of 1979 and its immediate aftermath, which, despite being a distinct transition from one non-Western regime to another, encountered similar issues with regard to the preservation of cultural heritage objects linked to the former establishment. The purpose of this paper is thus to provide a better understanding of the non-traditional processes of transitional justice, with a special focus on the place of cultural heritage objects during a transition using the example of Iran. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With a focus on an under-studied group of immigrants in the UK, this paper examines Iranian families' language ideologies and practices at home in relation to Persian acquisition and maintenance for their children. Working within a family language policy (FLP) framework, we draw on sociolinguistic data from semi-structured interviews with eighteen mothers to understand how parental beliefs, their everyday language practices and the attempts they make to maintain, improve, or alter their language use will lead to their children's heritage language acquisition and maintenance. The results of the study suggest that the success in heritage language development and maintenance boils down to parental pro heritage language ideologies and their everyday small-scale practices. It was also found that the interrelationship between language and cultural values and a successful FLP was further reinforced by the parents' migration trajectory and proficiency in English as the societal language. This research also showed that the large size of this diaspora in the UK (particularly in London), their close-knit social network, availability of heritage language weekend schools and the possibility of frequent visits to the home country create a conducive situation for the Iranian diaspora to raise their children bilingually. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Suxiu, "Suzhou embroidery," is one of the major styles of traditional Chinese embroidery. In 2006, Suxiu was listed as the National Intangible Cultural Heritage (ICH) of China. Although the official media highlight the glory of Suxiu and its cultural significance as ICH, the industry has encountered great difficulties and challenges for the last 20 years. This paper explores the predicament of Suxiu and the far-reaching impacts of the China's ICH policies on the embroidery industry. It argues that the state policies fail to provide community members with equal participatory opportunities in the heritage industry. Instead, it creates intragroup hierarchy and classification, favoring certain members while excluding others. More specifically, it examines local embroiderers' different attitudes and reactions toward the ICH system, thus illustrating how the top-down policies affect the sociocultural process of recognition. It aims to offer a critical reflection on how China's industrialization and ICH policies have transformed the nation's handicraft industry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper addresses challenges inherent in disputes about the reconstruction of built heritage in Kosova, exploring justifications for approval or denial of permits for reconstruction at archaeological sites in the specific political context. To illustrate how standards and principles of conservation, and specifically, of reconstruction, affect decision-making, we present and discuss three sites. Thus, we contribute, through the Kosova experience, to international debate, both empirically and contextually, about the correlation of international standards and principles of conservation and reconstruction, and their impact and perception in the national context. The experience of Kosova shows that adherence to international cultural heritage principles, conventions and policies, within a highly politicized discourse of heritage, is paramount to ensure impartial heritage protection, especially in the rebuilding of ruins. Attempts to build new structures upon old ruins may potentially ignite political, ethnic and religious discord especially in societies where different communities claim heritage ownership. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Increasingly there is an understanding of the complexities of heritage within UK research, practice and policy. This has contributed to a growing recognition of intangible heritage, however there remains low awareness, and lack of sustained support, for Intangible Cultural Heritage (ICH). This paper outlines a case study - 'The Man Engine Pilgrimage' a popular performative heritage event in 2016 that celebrated the ten-year anniversary of Cornwall as a WHS, designated 'Outstanding Universal Value'. Central to this heritage performance was a twelve metre tall mechanical puppet, replicating parts of the mining process, which made a pilgrimage across the Cornish landscape, visiting old mining sites as an act of community remembrance, spatial identity and celebration. These events called attention to ways that 'heritage' was used and celebrated through formal and informal processes and practices. The study in particular provided insight into structural changes in official heritage processes in Cornwall that facilitated bridging processes or entry points for 'from-below' voices and intangible heritage. The latter included performing Cornishness, which is explored as the living, sensorial embodied performance of heritage in public. This is a reflexive cultural process, where values and symbolic meanings are seen in action – a 'loose' space. Within this performativity meanings and values are created, negotiated, confirmed or refuted in this process of heritage making. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]