Inviting all humanity to an elite club? Understanding tensions in UNESCO’s global heritage regimes through the lens of a typology of goods

Abstract

This paper aims to reflect on heritage diplomacy by analysing the nature of tensions in Global Heritage Regimes (GHRs) built around the World Heritage Convention and the Intangible Heritage Convention. Combining regime theory with Ostroms’ typology of goods, we claim that the process of transforming the abstract idea of ‘Heritage of Humanity’ (HoH) into an outcome in the form of a heritage list needs to mobilise heritage as diplomacy and also is the result of heritage as diplomacy. At the same time, the transformation generates tension based on the experienced delusion of (1) the expectations built upon the inclusive idea of the ‘Heritage of Humanity’ (public good) and (2) the exclusive character of heritage lists (club goods). We claim that this ‘Inclusion-Exclusion Tension’ (IET) is an inherent element of global heritage regime design and as such needs to be managed through diplomatic efforts.

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