UC Davis

This essay briefly introduces this special issue, outlining the context for UNESCO's 2003 Convention for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage and its accompanying Representative List. It explains that the issue itself is structured around six case studies, each one providing on-the-ground perspectives of people engaged with UNESCO policies on the local level. These essays are followed by three commentaries that offer comparative and theoretical insights drawn from the case studies. It is suggested that the issue can be read as a multiauthored and multisited ethnography of local engagements with global decisions, providing insights into emerging discourses on intangible cultural heritage.