IN-PERSON Lisbon Livable Cities. Section B

Abstract

The Convention for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage was adopted in 2003 during UNESCO’s 32nd General Conference, and ratified by Portugal in 2008. By 2024, one hundred and eighty-three countries had endorsed this Convention, consolidating a set of common concerns centred on the dynamic aspects of cultural heritage, where the primary condition for its safeguarding is the central and active role of the communities who ensure the cultural practices’ transmission. Firstly, we will present a critical inquiry into the concept of intangible cultural heritage, focusing on the most pressing challenges to its definition and applicability. Secondly, we will critically address the notion of «communities, groups and individuals», as defined in the context of UNESCO’s Convention (2003). Then, we will assert how the territorial context and networking scope of practicing communities – namely, their urbanity – might influence the motivations inherent to the patrimonialization processes in which they are involved and condition their impact. We will conclude with a few exploratory remarks on two specific cultural practices’ patrimonialization processes in the context of Lisbon’s metropolitan area: Marchas Populares de Lisboa, initiated by the Association of Collectivities of the Municipality of Lisbon in 2024, and Kola San Jon, celebrated yearly in the context of Bairro do Alto da Cova da Moura (Amadora), inscribed in the Intangible Cultural Heritage National Inventory since 2013. Both cases, at different stages and in different ways, can illustrate some of the visible and invisible driving forces and consequences of patrimonialization processes at local level and the ways through which heritage can be mobilized as a right to difference, within the broader context of the right to the city.