Is Bottom-Up a Condescending Expression? Tales of Indignation and Reflexivity

In this essay, the author discusses the empowerment of practitioners of intangible cultural heritage (ICH) and, from a conceptual perspective, the bottom-up model. To contextualize this reflection, she refers to two episodes, ephemeral and apparently irrelevant, but which helped her to rethink concepts and procedures that we often consider definitive or even unquestionable . One of these episodes is related to her collaboration on the ICH Inventory held in the municipality of Elvas (2013-2014), in Portugal. The other episode refers to a journalistic report about the presence of a Choral Group of Cante Alentejano in Paris, in the Intergovernmental Committee for the Safeguarding of Intangible Cultural Heritage in 2014, when this cultural expression was inscribed in the Representative List.