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Although Cultural Heritage as such has a rather positive connotation, bringing together notions of safeguarding and human creativity, critical investigations have underlined the various strategic, economic and political rationalities inscribed in this term. In 2010 the UNESCO rendered the Alevi ritual sequence semah Intangible Cultural Heritage and as such it was inscribed in the Turkish National Inventory of Cultural Heritage – although Alevis are not recognized by the Turkish state and its Sunni-Turkist understandings of belonging. The celebration of an Alevi ritual as enriching Turkey’s ‘cultural diversity’ thus asks for an analytical approach that comes to terms with this tension of recognition, ongoing political surveillance and the very specific understandings of diversity that are put into play. With reference to Foucaults (and particularly Roses) approach to contemporary government as “governmentality”, Cultural Heritage can be grasped in its ambivalent (but not necessarily conflicting) nature as cultural self-fulfillment and governmental control. The paper thus enlarges the analytical scale of thinking about Cultural Heritage in its correlation with identity-formation, the politics of recognition and governance.

Solutions to the climate and energy crises will likely involve large scale renewable energy technology deployment and of renewable energy technologies in building energy systems and transportation systems. But they will also require changes in lifestyle, behavior, and social organization. Solar heating and bicycle use are well-developed technologies that exemplify social-technological hybrids. Davis, California, has established a national reputation as a bike-friendly city and has been an international leader in supporting energy efficient housing developments. Support, however, has waxed and waned over the years. Davis provides an ideal case study to explore the conditions necessary to develop a sustained community commitment to passive solar design and human powered transport at a scale large enough to make a difference. This analysis points to the importance of local politics, municipal identity tied to an energy or environmental vision, and the organization of social capital to influence broad-based technological choice. Key words: solar heating, bicycle lanes, social capital, behavior, environmental politics.

The accelerating references to Cultural Heritage in politics and scholarship have impacted on ‘vernacular’ or migrant communities’ aspirations for the recognition of their distinct identities and have likewise influenced nation-states’ policies on cultural diversity. Thus Alevi communities in Turkey and Germany have used the institutions and language provided by intergovernmental actors to claim recognition of their Intangible Cultural Heritage. In 2010, the Alevi-Bektaşi ritual dance, semah, was inscribed onto Turkey’s National Inventory for Intangible Cultural Heritage. However, Alevis in Germany, also drawing on the semah as their “useable past”, recently initiated their own heritage project. This paper analyses the various functions and uses of heritage discourse in the context of its exercise by both state and non-state actors in Germany and Turkey. It will be argued that a critical investigation must question the empowering and disciplining aspects of the governmentalities of Cultural Heritage because, as demonstrated by the Turkish case, recognition of (Alevi) heritage does not necessarily translate into legal recognition.