UNESCO, museums and ‘development’

This chapter explores the ways in which the United Nations Educational, Scientifi c and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) has enunciated norms, principles, methods and objectives concerning culture in the context of different ideas of development, notably with regard to the role of museums. The Organization’s fl agship activities in the fi eld of culture are World Heritage, implemented under the aegis of the widely ratifi ed 1972 Convention Concerning the Protection of the World Cultural and Natural Heritage, and, since the adoption of the eponymous Convention of 2003, Intangible Cultural Heritage. Far less well known and celebrated is UNESCO’s role as an international elaborator of norms and principles-or, to use a current academic buzzword, ‘knowledge practices’—concerning museums and museum objects (‘moveable cultural property’ in the international parlance), notably through the 1970 Convention on the Means of Prohibiting and Preventing the Illicit Import, Export and Transfer of Ownership of Cultural Property. The Organization has also generated applied knowledge for training purposes-‘capacity-building’ in the jargon of international development practice. In addition, it has provided small amounts of direct funding or mobilized considerably greater amounts for heritage conservation operations per se, that is, for the on-site conservation or rehabilitation of monuments and sites across the world as well as for museum building and renovation projects.