01224nas a2200121 4500000000100000008004100001100002300042245007400065856003700139300001100176520089300187020002201080 2019 d1 aRob van der Laarse00aEurope s Peat Fire: Intangible Heritage and the Crusades for Identity uDOI: 10.1007/978-3-030-11464-0_4 a79-1343 aRob van der Laarse explores conflicts around the supposed ownness of intangible cultural heritage through examples from the recent (political) rediscovery of folklore in contemporary Europe. Recently, the promotion of, and identification with, national and regional folklore have been hijacked by European populist parties and movements. In their discourses, real and imaged folklore phenomena have been transformed into political means to foster territorial cultural identities and their “authenticity”. Through examples from the Netherlands and other European countries, the chapter critically discusses the UNESCO Convention for the Safeguarding of Intangible Cultural Heritage (2003) and its role in stimulating contestation of the ownership of heritage by enabling (political) actors to utilize the concept of intangible cultural heritage for cultural identity-building projects. a978-3-030-11464-0