This presentation introduces “delegated competition” as a constitutive logic of contemporary ICH safeguarding. Drawing on multi‑sited ethnographic fieldwork in Enshi, China (2024–2025), it shows how competitive dynamics operate at ground level within a highly institutionalised heritage governance system where collaboration and shared responsibility are taken for granted as normative goods. It further traces how delegated competition comes into view in the everyday work of officials, practitioners, and communities. In these settings, heritage actors must render their work legible and commensurable in order to sustain a reputation for being indispensable. By shifting attention from what should be safeguarded to how safeguarding becomes evaluable, the presentation re‑interrogates what counts as successful safeguarding.

This paper examines how intangible cultural heritage (ICH) recognition reshapes practitioners’ experiences of heritage identity and social position through everyday practice. Drawing on research among traditional craft practitioners in China, it analyses heritage recognition as a cultural process that re-codes labour as culture and repositions practitioners as cultural subjects. The paper shows how changes in lifestyle, symbolic recognition, and self-perception generate new imaginaries of respectability without securing stable social standing. While heritage identity provides visibility and recognition, practitioners remain situated within broader social structures, including market dependence and rural–urban hierarchies. The paper explores themes of self-perception and the relational positioning of practitioners within broader social structures and networks.

Understandings of heritage vary depending on the context and values of the people who engage with the concept. These understandings are often influenced by governmental and institutional framings that might overlook Indigenous and rural perspectives. The field of Critical Heritage Studies highlights this political dimension and its relevance for UNESCO-designated sites where diverse heritage interpretations and power dynamics coexist.
This paper presents evidence about the diverse heritage narratives present in the Mixteca Alta UNESCO Geopark in Oaxaca, Mexico. Geoparks are a recent type of UNESCO designation that emphasizes local participation and the connections between geoheritage and other heritage forms. Drawing on a year of ethnographic fieldwork, the findings highlight how political, economic, and cultural dynamics shape heritage understandings, contributing with this to discussions about the diversity of heritage views and how they can be used to promote collaborations that support social cohesion and help communities face environmental and social challenges.