The Heritage from Cultural Turn to Inclusive Turn. The Cultural and Sacred Landscapes of the UNESCO List: a Sustainable Track to overcome the Dichotomy between Tangible and Intangible Heritage?

The term ‘heritage’ has considerably changed its meaning over time, especially in recent decades and among contemporary local communities, partially owing to the instruments developed by the UNESCO jointly with the World Heritage Center. On the basis of the endless debate within the UNESCO and many theoretical suggestions, this paper aims at providing a framework for the ever changing inter-relationship between tangible and intangible heritage in inclusive values of the UNESCO list cultural landscapes. In the author’s opinion, cultural landscapes are a strategic key for an inclusive turn, where tangible and intangible values intertwine. In this framework, the WHC with the World Heritage Convention of Cultural Landscapes (1992) and the European Landscape Convention (2000) meant to broaden the definition of World Heritage and European Landscape to better reflect the full range of our world’s cultural and natural treasures. The aim was to implement and balance the World Heritage Convention throughout all geographical areas in the world, thanks to rapid social changes linked to deep and widespread processes of local inclusion. The paper assumes a change in the paradigm of cultural shift towards an inclusive shift, starting from the WHC endless debate of tangible/intangible dichotmy, thus the Conventions of Cultural Landscapes, to analize Italian landscapes within the WHL’s 88 properties that embody an exceptional spiritual relationship between people and nature, iconic symbol of the inclusive approach for an Intangible Social Heritage supported by a sacred/spiritual gaze. Can Sacred Landscapes be the first known strategic key among all landscape categories? Is Cultural Landscape likely to produce an Intangible Social Heritage suitable to overcome the historical and geopolitical dichotomy of Tangible and Intangible Heritage and support a shift towards an inclusive society? The paper hopes to contribute to this issue.