The World Heritage Convention and Logics of Outstanding Universal Value

• In Event: 183 - Regular Session. International Organizations and World Polity

Abstract

Since World War II, the world heritage movement has generated widespread international consensus regarding the need to promote and preserve various sites of natural and cultural significance. While the formal designation of significance in terms of “outstanding universal value” (OUV) and the criteria for evaluation were initially ambiguous, this process has undergone extensive rationalization over time. We argue that specialized international non-governmental organizations (INGOs), such as the International Council on Monuments and Sites (ICOMOS) and the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN), have played a particularly prominent role in defining OUV, formalizing the process of evaluation, and reinforcing the legitimacy of world heritage by promoting scientific practices of management and preservation. We draw on the site evaluations produced by ICOMOS and IUCN to demonstrate the expansive character of the discourse about what constitutes outstanding universal value and the increasing reliance on scientific criteria. In addition to this scientific logic, we suggest that institutional logics rooted in excellence and diversity have influenced the definition of OUV and that these divergent logics can help shed light on the rapid proliferation and unequal geographic distribution of World Heritage Sites.

Authors

• Vaughn Schmutz, University of North Carolina-Charlotte

• Michael A. Elliott, Towson University