10.1080/09647775.2022.2102755

The participation of communities in the safeguarding of their own cultural heritage is a defining feature of UNESCO’s 2003 Convention for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage, separating it from earlier heritage doctrine that emphasizes the authority of heritage experts in conservation planning. Participatory safeguarding practices are central to UNESCO’s suite of ICH training and capacity-building resources, including the Register of Good Safeguarding Practices, Ethical Principles for Safeguarding Intangible Cultural Heritage (2015), and the Operational Directives for the implementation of the 2003 Convention (2018). But respect and involvement of stakeholder communities, groups, and individuals in decision-making processes and in the safeguarding cycle of documentation, recognition, and transmission happens in different ways in different contexts, and with varying outcomes. There is a clear need to critically analyze ‘the participatory turn’ and how community-led safeguarding happens on the ground as recommendations for best practice are interpreted and implemented by diverse actors. Maria Alivizatou’s Intangible Heritage and Participation: Encounters with Safeguarding Practices is a useful contribution to a growing body of literature (see also Stefano Citation2022 and Foster and Gilman Citation2015) that evaluates the opportunities and limitations of UNESCO’s participatory paradigm across a diversity of safeguarding case studies.