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

在世界各地，遭受社会经济不平等和歧视的社区加入社会运动，表达他们的关切。最近，社会科学家观察到一个新的现象：这些社会运动正在利用特定文化实践的象征力量来实现他们的组织目标，与此同时，他们组织反对的政府正在寻求联合国教科文组织承认与非物质文化遗产（ICH）相同的实践。这种自上而下的政治战略和国家建设与自下而上的社会动员的融合，提出了关于文化在人类社会中的作用和当代政治制度性质的新问题。在Vincent B. Crapanzano博士的指导下，纽约城市大学的博士生Laura B. Carter将对这些问题进行研究。她选择在法国和法国海外领土瓜德罗普岛进行研究，那里最近被联合国教科文组织指定为非物质文化遗产，为研究这一过程的两端提供了一个合适的地点。在瓜德罗普岛，她将通过参与观察、访谈和两个不同地区的口述历史来收集数据，以记录和分析从业者和文化管理者如何创造、维护和改变遗产传统。在法国（非nsf资助），她将调查法国文化政策的变化，以及它们是如何产生非物质文化遗产提名的。这项研究的结果将进一步从社会科学的角度理解社会运动的运作、遗产项目的多重意义以及当代世界政治形式不断变化的本质。

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.