International Heritage New Approaches, Old Concerns

This book celebrates decades of safeguarding cultural heritage and reckons with reconfigurations and shifts that have shaped the field and understandings of it. The author reflects on a career of safeguarding heritage, offering perspectives from the positions of consumer, researcher, educator, and communicator and at a range of scales, from local-level debates to macro-level perspectives on the role of heritage preservation in international relations.

The book situates heritage preservation in the context of soft power and the international system and examines how it intersects with cultural diplomacy. These interrelationships crystalize in the illicit trafficking of cultural goods, inspiring reflections on private and common goods, interoperability, and decoloniality. Grounded in nuanced understandings of "world heritage" and "heritage of humanity", the author critically examines the foundation, trajectory, and remit of UNESCO and highlights cases of cultural and natural heritage, language, and tourism. These discussions in turn inform treatments of two timely topics: intangible heritage of and for refugees and the treatment of statues and symbols of colonizers.

By integrating diverse themes that are frequently treated independently, International Heritage: New Approaches, Old Concerns is a resource for researchers and practitioners looking to understand the foundations, current debates, and imminent challenges facing communities that aim to safeguard global cultural heritage.

1 Soft Power and Heritage.- 2 Digressions on Cultural Diplomacy.- 3 International Trafficking in Cultural Objects.- 4 Interoperability as a Preservation Tool.- 5 Return and Restitution of Cultural Goods.- 6 Heritage of Humanity, World Heritage and Common Heritage.- 7 The Deep Roots of the Long-Lived UNESCO.- 8 Documents That Have Shaped UNESCO's World Heritage.- 9 Natural Heritage.- 10 Tourism Phobia.- 11 Lusophony as Heritage.- 12 UNESCO Memory of the World.- 13 Welcome as Soft Power.- 14 Symbols, Statues and Functions of the Past.- 15 From Aswan to Cairo.

Rodrigo Christofoletti works at the interface between History and International Relations with a focus on cultural heritage. He is leader of the research group Cnpq - Heritage and International Relations. Researcher at LAPA - UFJF Heritage Laboratory and collaborator at CITCEM - Transdisciplinary Research Center "Culture, Space and Memory" at the Faculty of Arts of the University of Porto (FLUP). He completed a mobility internship (Post-doctorate) at the Faculty of Arts of the University of Porto (2023-2024) and is a professor of Cultural Heritage in the History course at the Federal University of Juiz de Fora (UFJF) where he also teaches in the Postgraduate Program from the same university. He has experience in the area of political history and cultural assets with an emphasis on Cultural Heritage, working mainly on the following themes: heritage and soft power; cultural goods; illicit trafficking in criminogenic cultural goods and collectibles and world heritage.