Culture, Diversity and Heritage Major Studies [Paperback]

The texts presented in this book trace the rise of culture as a major concern for development, international diplomacy, sustainability and national politics over the past two decades. As a major participant in anthropological field research, advocate for cultural freedom and decision-maker in international programs on culture, the author gives a firsthand account of the trade-offs, the contradictions and the management of consensus in these fields. She argues that the constitutive, functional and instrumental aspects of cultural narratives call for a more in-depth understanding of knowledge, leading to cultural and social sustainability in the framework of a new worlding . Many of the texts gathered here were presented at the United Nations General Assembly and other high-level international meetings. Most of the texts are unpublished; some were first published in Spanish and are now available in English for the first time.

Introduction.- Arbitrating Collective Dreams: Anthropology and the New Worlding.- The Ritual and the Promise: Why People Value Social Ritual.- Culture and Science.- The Intellectual History of Culture and Development Institutions.- Cultural Diversity as a Source of Creativity for Globalization.- How to Reconceptualize Intangible Cultural Heritage.- The Genealogy of Intangible Cultural Heritage.- Cultural Endowments at Risk in Induced Development.- Culture, Governance and Globalization.- Freedom of Choice, Democracy and the Zapatistas.- Equality of Vulnerability and Opportunity.- Convivencia: The Goal of Conviviability.- Freedom to Create.- Culture and Development: A Comparative Study of Beliefs.

The author has been a major actor in international culture and social science programmes

The cultural turn in science and politics has placed culture at the center of development concerns

The texts were presented at the highest level of the United National and international science fora