Intangible heritage and sustainable development: Realistic outcome or wishful thinking?

This first Forum of Heritage and Society focuses on the complex relationships between intangible cultural heritage (ICH) and sustainable development. The selection of this theme was triggered by the wording of the preamble of the 2003 UNESCO Convention for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage (henceforth the 2003 Convention) which recognizes the “importance of the intangible cultural heritage as [ … ] a guarantee of sustainable development” (UNESCO 2003). Concomitantly, it echoes but also prolongs the current international reflection on culture and development led by UNESCO (see for instance the High-level Round Table on Culture for Development organized by UNESCO and held during the UN Summit on the Millennium Development Goals, 20–22 September 20101).