Greetings from ORGANIZERS

The Center for Glocal Studies (CGS), Seijo University, Tokyo, Japan, and the International Research Centre for Intangible Cultural Heritage in the Asia-Pacific Region under the auspices of UNESCO (IRCI), Osaka, Japan, will jointly host an international symposium on Glocal Perspectives on Intangible Cultural Heritage: Local Communities, Researchers, States and UNESCO, to be held on July 7-9, 2017, at Seijo University, Tokyo, Japan.

Since United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) in 2003 adopted the Convention for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage and its subsequent commencement in 2006, more than 170 countries have become States Parties to the Convention, and about 430 intangible heritage elements have been inscribed on the Urgent Safeguarding List, the Representative List and the Register of Best Practices. Therefore, we can assume that the spirit and the concept embedded in the Convention have been accepted globally as the basic principles for safeguarding intangible cultural heritage (ICH). In the process of implementing this convention, stakeholders involved in this endeavour and their interactions are diverse not only at the global level but also at the local and national levels.

One of the co-organizers of the symposium, the Center for Glocal Studies (CGS) of the Seijo University, has been striving to examine the socio-cultural dynamics in various settings from not only a global perspective but also local perspective, that is, from a glocal one. A decade after the UNESCO Convention commenced, the CGS attempts to observe and examine the realities and consequent issues relating to the Convention from a glocal perspective.

In 2011, the other co-organizer of the symposium, the International Research Centre for Intangible Cultural Heritage in the Asia-Pacific Region (IRCI) under the National Institutes for Cultural Heritage, Japan was established as the Category 2 centre under the auspices of UNESCO. Since 2011, the IRCI has been promoting and contributing to the implementation of the UNESCO Convention. The IRCI instigates and coordinates research into practices and methodologies for ICH safeguarding, cooperating with researchers and local community members internationally.

This symposium aims to overview and analyse how intangible cultural heritage has been safeguarded. It also aims to examine, from local as well as global perspectives, how local communities, researchers, states and UNESCO have been interacting in the process of safeguarding such heritage in the Asia-Pacific region.