Experts in the World Heritage Regime

Addressing the topic of expertise in international cultural conservation, this book argues that the UNESCO World Heritage regime emerged as a Faustian pact between protection and prestige, and a productive tension between these elements remains at its core, embodied by the heritage expert. Tracing experts’ practices in the World Heritage regime, this book shows how they burnish, broker and themselves benefit from World Heritage prestige. As World Heritage prestige also contributes to states’ international status claims, the stakes are raised, with both the denouement of the pact and the future for World Heritage poised between condemnation and redemption.

“The focus on the politics of the UNESCO World Heritage Committee in recent scholarly and press coverage should not blind us to the crucial role experts continue to play in this arena. Deploying eloquent presentation, cogent theoretical ideas, lively observations from multilateral meeting rooms and candid remarks confided by key players, James shows how in the pursuit of symbolic value creation and world-making, politics and expertise are inevitably intertwined. Readers interested in heritage conservation, global governance and the political economy of knowledge in our post-truth times will be inspired by his piercing analysis.” (— Christoph Brumann, Head of Research Group, Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropology, Halle, Germany)

“By foregrounding the figurative and reciprocal economy of ‘prestige’ in the world of heritage conservation, this thorough, empirically grounded study of the contemporary practice of world heritage expertise opens new and important lines of enquiry in understanding the politics of the past in the present. In doing so, the book makes a significant intervention in current debates regarding world heritage and the future of cultural heritage conservation in relation to both the climate emergency and ‘post-truth’, populist politics”. (— Rodney Harrison, Professor of Heritage Studies, University College London, UK)

“Interesting and thought-provoking, this book explores the role and influence of experts responsible for evaluating heritage sites for UNESCO World Heritage inscription and gives us a glimpse into the inner workings of the UNESCO World Heritage Committee. Engaging and readable, it brings a fresh approach to our understanding of the implementation of the World Heritage Convention." (— Claire Cave, Assistant Professor School of Archaeology, University College Dublin, Ireland)

Luke James is a heritage studies scholar, lawyer and heritage practitioner specialising in World Heritage and international conservation governance. Luke is Lecturer, Cultural Heritage and Museum Studies at Deakin University and previously worked in the Australian Government’s International Heritage Section, with UNESCO and as a heritage consultant.