Martor No. 22 / Year 2017

Cristoph Brumann, and David Berliner (eds.), World Heritage on the Ground. Ethnographic Perspectives, New York and Oxford: Berghahn Publishers, 2016. Published in association with the European Association of Social Anthropology (EASA), vol. 28.

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Author: Vintilă Mihăilescu

About the author:

Vintilă Mihăilescu
Professor, PhD., Department of Sociology, National University of Political Studies and Public Administration, Romania
Email: mihailescuvintila at yahoo dot com

Pages: 205-207.

Keywords: UNESCO’s World Heritage Program, patrimonialisation, globalisation, locality, cultural policies, preservation, transformation.

Abstract:

This work edited by Christoph Brumann and David Berliner delivers what it promises, that is, a skilful bringingtogether of two equally legitimate approaches: a top-down one, which investigates UNESCO’s World Heritage Program as a global institution, and a grassroots one, which seeks for local applications and implications of patrimonial decisions taken “up there.” At the intersection of the authors’ views and interests, the general question of the book arises: “What does World Heritage actually do on the ground of the World Heritage properties, far away from the meeting halls where the committee takes its decisions?” The general answer, as Berliner puts it, is that “by attempting to preserve spaces, practices and objects, UNESCO experts and national heritage professionals effectively transform them.”

How to cite this review: Mihăilescu, Vintilă. 2017. “Cristoph Brumann, and David Berliner (eds.), World Heritage on the Ground. Ethnographic Perspectives, New York and Oxford: Berghahn Publishers, 2016.” Martor 22: 205-207.