UNESCO’s 2003 Convention for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage continues to invite critical examination, particularly regarding its implementation within national public policies. In Portugal, ratification of the Convention in 2008 led to a new framework for cultural heritage governance focused on Intangible Cultural Heritage (ICH), translating international norms into national legislation and institutional mechanisms. Within this context, a growing number of documentation initiatives - such as archives and informal repositories developed by heritage organisations have emerged as safeguarding measures. Despite their expansion, research addressing their characterisation, development and impact remains limited. To respond to this gap, the InMAP (Memories and Archives: Mapping the (In)tangible) study analysed ICH documentation initiatives in Portugal through a mixed-methods approach, combining a national survey with in-depth interviews. This presentation discusses the main findings, focusing on challenges related to documentation, digital preservation, access and community participation, and reflects on policy–practice relations dynamics.

This presentation looks into a heritage regeneration project in Anyang, a northern Chinese city, to reflect on the role of the "authorities" during heritage conservation practices. Though heritage professionals and local governments are generally believed to be the ‘authorities’ in heritage conservation, in this project, only the local government’s discourse was mostly realised, whereas heritage professionals’ discourse was relatively invisible. The fundamental reason lies in the fact that heritage professionals were only ‘authorised’ due to their cultural authority derived from professional knowledge, yet they did not possess political authority. Political authority derived from political power resided within the local government, which could thus largely determine how the project would be implemented. Distinguishing different ‘authorities’ questions the prevailing critique that heritage professionals are often barriers to democratising heritage conservation. Conversely, under certain circumstances, as I argue, heritage professionals can play a pivotal role in leading bottom-up approaches.

This paper employs cultural heritage practices as a lens to investigate Sabah’s evolving social dynamics in terms of community resilience and cultural legitimacy, by focusing on the stateless Bajau Luat community in Semporna. The study contemplates contemporary Semporna’s indigeneity as a contested landscape of renegotiating unequal power-economic relations between marginalised stateless community and the rapid growth of international tourism. This paper illustrates how recent grassroots initiatives and civic movements led diversely by local NGOs, activist-artists, environmentalists and youth groups, have made positive changes in reinforcing their cultural pride, reclaiming a sense of communal ownership and uplifting social cohesion.

The term dialogue has been central in heritage discourse and practice for several decades, including the controversial inclusion, and subsequent removal, of the term ‘critical dialogue’ from ICOM’s museum definition in 2022. While participatory activities have flourished in this period, ambiguity still remains around whether and how diverse GLAM organisations perceive and effectively operationalise dialogue. We draw on responses to a pilot international online survey with GLAM practitioners to discuss how dialogue is defined in GLAM organisations, who carries the responsibility for dialogue and who is expected to participate. We particularly reflect on the temporal parameters of dialogic practices, the directionality of dialogic communication and the forms of value that emerge from dialogue-based GLAM work. Within the context of polycrisis, we advocate for a closer connection between heritage practice and theory to enable us to advance effective articulations and operationalisations of dialogue in future GLAM communication practices and priorities.