Balancing the books

How folklore became part of an international agenda concerning intellectual property and cultural heritage

Bibliographic Data

ID24215152
AuthorsÁki Guðni Karlsson (0000-0003-1989-9581, University of Iceland)
Year2026
Volume33
Publication date2026-01-01
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueInternational Journal of Cultural Property (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0940-7391 • E-ISSN: 1465-7317
PublisherCambridge University Press (CUP) (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1017/s0940739126100496
OpenAlexW7214927534
LanguageEN
References cited60

Since the early 1960s, folklore has been on the agenda of two powerful international organizations: the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) and the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO). Their overt intent has been to protect folklore from perceived abuses, but their work also had the aim of making the licensing of traditional arts an internationally marketable good. In this article I outline the premise for folklore’s entry on the agenda of international relations in the twentieth century and its fate since then. The article documents some of the efforts toward creating a global licensing scheme for folklore using intellectual property regulations. This proved to be problematic when it came to traditional culture. I identify two positions in this regard: on the one hand that the lack of protection for folklore constitutes a gap to be covered, and on the other that folklore is a bad fit for intellectual property.

Cultural heritage · Folklore · folklore protection · Intellectual property · International organizations · International relations · traditional culture · UNESCO · World Intellectual Property Organization · Cultural Heritage Management and Preservation · Indigenous Peoples' Rights and Law · Intellectual Property Law

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