Communities and Cultural Heritage explores the relationship between communities, their cultural heritage and the global forces that control most of the world’s wealth and resources in today’s world. Bringing together scholars and heritage practitioners from nine countries, this book contributes to the ongoing dialogue on community heritage by analysing impediments to full community participation. The underminin of local communities comes at a high price. As the chapters in this book demonstrate, the knowledge embedded within traditional and Indigenous heritage creates communities that are more resilient to environmental and social stressors and more responsive to contemporary challenges such as climate change, environmental degradation, post-disaster recovery and relocation. Cultural heritage practices often fail to capitalise upon local knowledge and traditional skills and undervalue the potential contribution of local communities in finding creative and resourceful solutions to the issues they are confronting. Arguing that the creation of successful community heritage project requires ongoing reflection on the aims, methods, financing and acceptable outcomes of projects, the volume also demonstrates that the decolonization of Western-focussed heritage practices is an ongoing process, by which subaltern groups are brought forward and given a space in the heritage narrative. Reflecting on trends that impact communities and heritage sites across different geographical regions, Communities and Cultural Heritage will be of interest to academics, students and practitioners of cultural heritage,archaeology and anthropology around the world.

Bringing together key insights from expert legal and heritage academics and practitioners, this book explores the existence and safeguarding of contemporary forms of intangible cultural heritage (ICH). Providing a detailed analysis of the international legal frameworks relevant to ICH, the contributing authors then go on to challenge the pervasive view that heritage is about ‘old’ tangible objects by highlighting the existence, role and importance of contemporary forms of ICH to modern society.

Exploring archaeology, community engagement and cultural heritage protection in South Asia, this book considers heritage management strategies through community engagement, bringing together the results of research undertaken by archaeologists, heritage practitioners and policy makers working towards the preservation and conservation of both cultural and natural heritage. The book highlights the challenges faced by communities, archaeologists and heritage managers in post-conflict and post-disaster contexts in their efforts to protect, preserve and present cultural heritage, including issues of sustainability, linkages with existing community programmes and institutions, and building administrative and social networks. The case-studies illustrate larger-scale projects to small micro-level engagement, across a range of geographical, political, social and economic contexts, providing a framework that links and synchronises programmes of archaeological activities alongside active community engagement. The chapters ‘Introduction’, ‘Community Engagement in the Greater Lumbini Area of Nepal: the Micro-Heritage Case-Study of Dohani’ and ‘Conclusion’ of this book are available open access under a CC BY 4.0 license at link.springer.com.

The Routledge Handbook of Cultural Landscape Heritage in the Asia-Pacific revisits the use, growth, and potential of the cultural landscape methodology in the conservation and management of culture-nature heritage in the Asia-Pacific region. Taking both a retrospective and prospective view of the management of cultural heritage in the region, this volume argues that the plurality and complexity of heritage in the region cannot be comprehensively understood and effectively managed without a broader conceptual framework like the cultural landscape approach. The book also demonstrates that such an approach facilitates the development of a flexible strategy for heritage conservation. Acknowledging the effects of rapid socio-economic development, globalization, and climate change, contributors examine the pressure these issues place on the sustenance of cultural heritage. Including chapters from more than 20 countries across the Asia-Pacific region, the volume reviews the effectiveness of theoretical and practical potentials afforded by the cultural landscape approach and examines how they have been utilized in the Asia-Pacific context for the last three decades. The Routledge Handbook of Cultural Landscape Heritage in the Asia-Pacific provides a comprehensive analysis of the processes of cultural landscape heritage conservation and management. As a result, it will be of interest to academics, students, and professionals who are based in the fields of cultural heritage management, architecture, urban planning, landscape architecture, and landscape management.

This book illustrates an alternative approach to ‘state of sustainability’ reporting by presenting cross-sectoral and multi-disciplinary discussions on sustainability issues in the context of a developing country, Botswana. The book volume illustrates how academic publishing can supplement African governments' existing forms of reporting on sustainability by providing on-ground detailed descriptions and experiences relating to achievement of the various sustainable development goals (SDGs). In addition, this process involves, increases and enhances diversity of stakeholders that report on sustainability. Furthermore, the approach resonates with the UN’s recommendation to build local strategies for implementation of the 2030 agenda for sustainable development. Conventional reporting on sustainability by most African countries is an exercise that is customarily the preserve of designated government ministries. While this form of reporting provides a consistent platform for tracking sustainable development goals, it can also benefit from juxtaposition with in-depth descriptions and experiences provided by academic publishing. Academia, through publishing, provides a framework for on-ground situation-analysis as well as in-depth descriptions of African country’s grass-root experiences, thus allowing for temporal tracking of sustainable development milestones. As this volume illustrates, experiences from the various contributors on this volume highlight different points of departure towards achieving the 2030 agenda. Topics covered include biodiversity, water management, world heritage, environment, education, tourism, gender, institutional approaches to achievement of SDGs, as well as contribution of non-governmental organisations (NGO)'s amongst others.

This book investigates approaches to community heritage within the Arab region and the underlying theories associated with these approaches. It aims, within the context of the region, to define ‘community’ and ‘heritage’, as well as examine the emergence and development of this field. The volume’s contributors deploy a wealth of case studies from the Middle East and North Africa to provide a unique forum for discussion, comparability, analysis and deeper understandings of current trends in community heritage. In particular, the volume explores the relationship between communities and their heritage, the meanings and values placed upon it, the nature and degree of community participation and engagement in its interpretation and management, and how its different registers affect and produce sometimes unexpected community heritage formations. It also examines the level of responsibility held within the profession towards this essentially democratic process of public participation in their heritage in a region shaped by controversial histories, political turmoil and tourism-driven economies. The volume builds on current research and practice in community heritage globally by debating and re-centring a suite of familiar and new issues related to hitherto under-researched regional-specific methodologies, and developing fresh insight into the theoretical underpinning of these practices. It will be of value to heritage scholars and practitioners as well as those interested in politics, identity, education and the dynamics of heritage-based sustainable development.