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Glossary

Adaptive management

a continuous process of planning, acting, monitoring and adjusting sustainability strategies over time.

Attitudes

Attitudes are motivators of performance. They include values, aspirations and priorities.

Branding

The process of building and creating your brand.

Business Model

The way in which and organisation/business generates value and pursuit economic sustainability.

Baseline

the initial measurement of environmental performance used as a reference to track future improvements.

Circular model

a sustainability approach aimed at reducing waste by reusing, repairing, recycling and regenerating resources.

Circular Economy

A model of production and use that reduces waste by keeping resources, materials, and products in use for as long as possible through sharing, repair, reuse, adaptation, and recycling, while supporting the regeneration of natural systems.

Climate Adaptation

Adjustments that reduce vulnerability to climate impacts.

Community engagement

All the organised actions through which those communities take part meaningfully in identifying, documenting, safeguarding, transmitting and sometimes economically valorising their ICH. It is based on dialogue, on free, prior and informed consent, and on collaboration with public authorities and experts. Engagement in ICH is not one workshop but a process running from the first contact to feedback and follow-up.

Community (in ICH)

The group of people who actually practise, value and transmit the element and therefore have the primary right to define it. A “community” can be territorial (a village, a historic quarter), practice-based (weavers, healers, festival committees), or identity-based (ethnic, religious, migrant). The UNESCO texts stress that communities are protagonists, not informants, and that more than one community can be linked to the same element.

Community Audit

Listing assests, traditions, historical buildings, stories etc. unique to your local area that could bring benefits to the wider Communities in terms of employment opportunities, as well as social and environmental benefits.

Community Engagement

Working collaboratively with and through groups of people affiliated by geographic proximity, special interest, or similar situations to address issues affecting the wellbeing of those people.

Community-based inventorying

A safeguarding method in which the inventory (what exists, who practises it, where, when, what threatens it) is made with the community from start to finish. Holders help define the elements, check the wording, decide on sensitive parts, and help publicise the results. The BC guides call this “the condition for an inventory to promote ICH safeguarding.”

Competence

In the context of the DigComp study, competence is understood as a set of knowledge, skills and attitudes.

Capacity Building

Grassroots process where members of a community share skills, talents, knowledge and experiences that strengthen or develop themselves and the community.

Deming Cycle

One of the most consolidated, robust and reliable framework to evaluate organisational processes and their compliance to internal monitoring standards.

Design thinking

Design thinking is a process for creative problem solving. It is a way to value and improve your ideas. It is human- centered, it and puts the focus on the people the product or service is being made for. It asks the question What is the human need behind it?

Digital entrepreneurship

Digital entrepreneurship is entrepreneurship that involves the use of new digital technologies (particularly social media, big data, mobile and cloud solutions). The purpose of this use may be to improve business operations, invent new business models, im-prove business intelligence or to engage with customers and stakeholders.

Digital literacy

In the context of DigComp, digital skills refers to a person proficiecy with IT systsems, tools and digital skills and with his/her ability to research, decode and interpret data on the internet.

Digital marketing strategy

The strategy to make your brand known through the digital environment. Digital marketing covers many fields, but some of them are SEO, email marketing and social media strategies.

Entrepreneruship

Entrepreneurship is when you act upon opportunities and ideas and transform them into value for others. The value that is creat-ed can be financial, cultural, or social (FFE-YE, 2012).

European Sustainability Reporting Standards (ESRS)

EU reporting framework defining how organisations disclose sustainability performance under the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD).

Five Forces model

The Model of Five Forces is a reference framework to analysis and assess the competitive dynamics of a specific industry/sector. The framework includes five variables (“forces”) shaping competition and the competitive challenges faced by an organisation.

Framework

A basic conceptional structure (as of ideas)

Goal setting

Goal setting is about setting goals and making a plan about how to reach them.

Green principles in ICH

aligning heritage safeguarding with environmental sustainability and climate action. The four core themes of Green Principles are: environmental respect, resource sustainability, transmission of eco-knowledge and harmony with eco system.

Green Transition

The process of moving towards more environmentally sustainable practices by reducing resource use, lowering environmental impact, and supporting climate and biodiversity goals across sectors, including culture.

Gap Analysis

A diagnostic process comparing current practices with the requirements of a sustainability standard, identifying what is compliant and what must be improved.

Ideation

Ideation is a process that involves getting ideas, working on them, shaping and developing them. The process is also about looking at ideas and trying to view at them from different perspectives.

Implementation

The process of making something active or effective

Impact of engagement

The concrete improvements that happen because communities were engaged: more accurate descriptions, protection of confidential knowledge, greater motivation to transmit, wider inclusion of women/youth/minorities, and stronger channels between communities and authorities — all of which were visible in the Melaka, Vietnam, Nepal, Asia–Pacific and urban cases.

Intangible Cultural Heritage

Traditions or living expressions inherited from our ancestors and passed on to our descendants, such as oral traditions, performing arts, social practices, rituals, festive events, knowledge and practices concerning nature and the universe or the knowledge and skills to produce traditional crafts.

Intangible Cultural Heritage

“Intangible cultural heritage includes practices, presentation, expression, knowledge, skills – as well as tools, objects, artefacts and cultural spaces associated with them – that societies, groups and in some cases individuals consider to be their cultural heritage.” Definition of ICH from UNESCO

Intangible Cultural Heritage (ICH)

Intangible cultural heritage includes the practices, knowledge, and expressions that communities recognize as part of their cultural identity, along with associated objects and spaces

Intangible Cultural Heritage (ICH)

Living traditions, practices, and knowledge passed down through generations.

Intangible cultural heritage

An intangible cultural heritage spans a wide range and refers to traditions that live by being shared between people.

ICH

“Intangible Cultural Heritage”.

Key Performance Indicators (KPIs)

Specific and measurable indicators used to track sustainability performance in cultural organisations across environmental, social, economic and cultural areas.

Knowledge

Knowledge is the body of facts, principles, theories and practices that is related to a field of work or study. In the context of the European Qualifications Framework, knowledge is described as theoretical and/or factual (European Parliament and the Council, 2008).

Lifelong leanirng

Lifelong learning is rooted in the integration of learning and living, covering lifelong (cradle to grave) and life-wide learning for people of all ages, delivered and undertaken through a variety of modalities and meeting a wide range of learning needs and demands.

Life Cycle Thinking

A way of planning and decision-making that considers the environmental, social, and economic impacts of an activity from its design and resource use through delivery, maintenance, reuse, and end of use.

Mentoring

One-to-one support by someone or a group who have done similar work – provides advice and helps work through challenges.

Mitigation measure

any action designed to reduce negative environmental impacts (e.g. LED lighting, low-flow taps).

Management

The act or skill of controlling and making decisions about a business,

Materiality

The concept that sustainability efforts should focus on the impacts most relevant to the organisation and its stakeholders.

Netiquette

Rules of behaviour on the Internet or digital world.

Network

A usually informally interconnected group or association of people(such as friends or professional colleagues)

Networking

Process of interacting with others to exchange information and develop professional or social contacts.

Networking

Meeting with other people/stakeholders with same or similar interests to share ideas and knowledge.

Networks

Space or platform for knowledge sharing/knowledge transfer to take place.

Peer Learning

Learning with and from each other in both formal and informal ways as fellow learners without any implied authority to any individual.

Primary Activites

Business activites that directly contribute to the generation of outputs

Participation levels

The degree to which communities influence decisions about their ICH. At the lowest level, they are only informed; then they are consulted; then they collaborate; at higher levels they co-decide or lead. For ICH, the literature recommends at least collaboration and, when possible, shared management, as seen in the Yoruba, Vietnam and BC cases.

Resilience

The ability of communities and systems to withstand, adapt to, and recover from disruptions.

Resource flow

the movement of materials, energy, water and other inputs through an organisation and its activities.

Responsive design

Web design adaptable to any digital device (computer, smart phone, tablet, etc.).

Secondary Activities

Business activites that are instumental to the processing of inputs, and without which outputs could not be generated by Primaries.

Skills

Skills are the ability to apply knowledge and use know-how to complete tasks and solve problems. In the context of the Europe-an Qualifications Framework, skills are described as cognitive (involving the use of logical, intuitive and creative thinking) or practical (involving manual dexterity and the use of methods, materials, tools and instruments) (European Parliament and the Council, 2008).

Soft skills

Personal competences that evolve, develop and change. Soft skills are important in all professions. They can be obtained and acquired, for example, through education and experience.

Social Entrepreneurship

An approach that uses economic activities to address social, cultural, or environmental challenges, where income generation supports a mission and surplus is reinvested to create long-term value.

Stakeholders

Stakeholders are individuals, groups and organisations with direct and indirect interest in value-creating activity and its impact.

Stakeholders Theory

Stakeholder Theory holds that decisions should account for the needs and impacts on all groups connected to an activity

Sustainability

Sustainability refers to society's ability to exist and develop without depleting the natural resources necessary to live in the future. The four pillars of sustainability are: Environment, economic, social and cultural.

Sustainable development goals

The United Nations has identified 17 global goals to guide towards a more sustainable development of the world.

Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

The 17 global goals adopted by the UN to guide sustainable development, used as reference frameworks for cultural impact measurement.

Systems Thinking

An approach that focuses on understanding relationships, interconnections, and long-term effects within complex systems, rather than addressing issues in isolation.

SEO

Search Optimization Engine, namely, strategies and actions to optimize the visibility and positioning of your website in the different online search engines.

SEO

“Search Engine Optimization”.

Safeguarding

Measures ensuring the viability, transmission, and sustainability of cultural heritage.

The Cloud

Online server hosting service that allows to upload, store, share or modify multimedia files.

Traditional Ecological Knowledge (TEK):

Community knowledge about nature, built through long-term observation and practice.

UNESCO

UNESCO is the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization. It seeks to build peace through international cooperation in Education, the Sciences and Culture. UNESCO has played a vital role worldwide in increasing people awareness of ICH.

Vision:

It can be defined as expectations for the future; something we envision as optimal conditions and strive to achieve.

Value of an idea

Value is what is valuable to one person, may not be valuable to another person. Value depends on the time and place. We evaluate the ICH idea in context.

Value creation

Value creation is the outcome of human activity to transform purposeful ideas into action which generates value for someone other than oneself. This value can be social, cultural or economic (EntreComp, glossary section).

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