The Participation in the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage: The role of Communities, Groups and Individuals 2018. Filomena Sousa, Collaboration: Vera Refólio. Memória Imaterial CRL.

This publication examines the issue of participation by communities, groups and individuals (CGIs) in the recognition and safeguarding of intangible cultural heritage, approaching this key theme from multiple directions. The author argues that the 2003 UNESCO Convention for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage changed the narrative around intangible cultural heritage, as a semi-defined set of social, economic and political conditions was added to the language used to describe community activities that had become subject to safeguarding (pp. 3-4). In doing so, she also argues that this safeguarding activity imposes additional risk - the potential that the heritage ceases to be a living and dynamic entity, subject to pressures of population, resources and external inputs, and becomes a static exercise, one concerned more with maintaining the 'recorded' example accurately than with continuing to evolve to suit the population within which it is situated.