Going Beyond

This volume looks at sustainable protection and sustainable use of cultural and natural heritage, particularly in view of the current challenges of the 21st century. For more than 40 years the World Heritage Convention has regulated the protection of the cultural and natural heritage of humankind, particularly in that heritage shall be protected if it is threatened by modern development.

The international community has also adopted sustainability and sustainable development, as objectives to facilitate the protection of cultural and natural heritage. Sustainable heritage protection and use must therefore be preserved in the face of the global challenges it faces and must be perceived in terms of societal, political and corresponding economic paradigms.

Prof. Dr., Marie-Theres? Albert, Professor Emerita and Former Chairholder Chair Intercultural Studies UNESCO Chair in Heritage Studies, studied and completed her doctorate and habilitation at the Technical University of Berlin in educational science, sociology and educational economics. From 1994 to 2015 she led the Chair Intercultural Studies at BTU Cottbus and has been the chair holder of the UNITWIN/UNESCO Chair in Heritage Studies since October 2003. She is the co-founder and former director (1999-2010) of the masters programme “World Heritage Studies” and founder and director (since 2010) of the Ph.D. programme “International Graduate School: Heritage Studies at Brandenburg University of Technology Cottbus-Senftenberg”. In this context, she has, since 2010, positioned Heritage Studies paradigmatically in the interest of human development and has developed it progressively into its own discipline with a sophisticated interdisciplinary approach. She initiated the series “Heritage Studies” to support the process of scientific development discursively. Prof. Dr. Albert is co-editor and also a member of the editorial advisory board for this publication.