United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (Unesco): Creating Norms for a Complex World by J. P. Singh

Author:J. P. Singh [Singh, J. P.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: International Relations, Intergovernmental Organizations, Diplomacy, Political Science, General
ISBN: 9781136878657
Google: 4kujBQAAQBAJ
Goodreads: 17582277
Publisher: Routledge
Published: 2010-12-01T00:00:00+00:00

4

The prominence of culture

In most people’s minds, the acronym UNESCO evokes something about culture. Many in the media also report only the cultural aspects of UNESCO. After the September 2009 election of Irina Bokova as director-general, the BBC referred to UNESCO as the cultural organization of the United Nations.1 As people travel around the world, be it to the Machu Picchu sanctuary or the historic spiritual capital of Timbuktu in Mali, they are most likely to find references to UNESCO at World Heritage sites, a program initiated by UNESCO in 1972. As of March 2010, there were 890 World Heritage sites. By any estimate the World Heritage program through UNESCO is its most successful and widely known initiative. Culture, nevertheless, cannot be limited to world heritage and, second, notions of heritage themselves have been subject to scrutiny, both inside and outside of UNESCO. This chapter first attends to the heritage program before discussing the far greater program on maintaining and creating cultural diversity for the task of socio-economic development.

UNESCO’s Preamble and Constitution provide the first instances of a broad definition of culture. If defenses of peace are to originate in the minds of human beings, then the organization is asking for cultural and transformational shifts in the ways in which we live and interact. Right after the “minds of men” statement, the Preamble continues thus:

That ignorance of each other’s ways and lives has been a common cause, throughout the history of mankind, of that suspicion and mistrust between the peoples of the world through which their differences have all too often broken into war;

And, one sentence later:

That the wide diffusion of culture, and the education of humanity for justice and liberty and peace are indispensable to the dignity of man and constitute a sacred duty which all the nations must fulfil in a spirit of mutual assistance and concern.

Any discussion on heritage or cultural diversity must then be viewed from the broad principles of the Preamble. It is to UNESCO’s credit that in cultural issues the connection to these principles is quite explicit, further accounting for this sector’s salience. Laurent Lévi-Strauss observes that UNESCO’s World Heritage program has been moving from a “monumentalist” vision to a more “anthropological” vision. This is equally apt for UNESCO’s work in culture, which continues to shift away from a consideration of monuments and other cultural artifacts to considering culture as a way of life.2 At it does so, UNESCO also faces the danger of becoming too broad and ideal in objectives while trying to balance that against the immediate needs and the politics that inform the agenda-setting in an organization with limited funds and capacity.

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