Doctoral Dissertation Research: Social Movements and the Politics of Intangible Heritage

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Throughout the world, communities suffering from socioeconomic inequalities and discrimination join social movements to voice their concerns. Recently, social scientists have observed a new phenomenon: these social movements are deploying the symbolic power of specific cultural practices for their organizing goals while, at the same time, the governments against which they are organizing are seeking recognition from UNESCO for the same practices as Intangible Cultural Heritage (ICH). This convergence of political strategizing and nation building from above and social mobilization from below raises new questions about the role of culture in human society and the nature of contemporary political systems.City University of New York doctoral student Laura B. Carter, supervised by Dr. Vincent B. Crapanzano, will undertake research on these questions. She has chosen to conduct the research in France and in the French overseas territory of Guadeloupe, where a recent UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage designation provides an apt site for investigating both ends of this process. In Guadeloupe, she will collect data through participant observation, interviews, and oral histories in two separate regions, in order to document and analyze how practitioners and cultural stewards create, maintain, and vary the heritage tradition. In France (with non-NSF funding support), she will investigate changes in France's cultural policies and how they produced the Intangible Cultural Heritage nomination. Findings from this research will further social scientific understanding of the workings of social movements, the multiple meanings of heritage projects, and the changing nature of political forms in the contemporary world.