Habitus / Sustainability of Latvian Cultural Traditions in an Innovative Environment

Programme "Sustainability of Latvian Cultural Traditions in an Innovative Environment" will be carried out by interdisciplinary, inter-university researchers' group in cooperation with national and international stakeholders in the field of intangible cultural heritage. The aim of the programme is to define preconditions of preserving and criteria for continuity of Latvian national identity forming traditions in a changing and innovative environment. The monitoring system of the Song and Dance Festival and revitalisation of its continuity will be the major results of the programme. The monitoring system will be adjustable for surveying both the festivals in other Baltic states and other intangible cultural heritage traditions. The programme will contribute to the growth ofyounger generation in the arts. As the results of the programme will be based on the set of broad, internationally comparable empirical data, they will increase theoretical knowledge about the preconditions of continuity of the tradition in a shifting cultural, social, economic and political environment.

Aim and tasks

The aim of the programme "Sustainability of Latvian Cultural Traditions in an Innovative Environment" is to define internationally comparable preconditions of preserving and criteria for continuity of Latvian national identity forming traditions in a changing and innovative environment.

The Programme addressed the following tasks:

1. To research cultural, social, economic, technological, and political dimension of the Song and Dance Festival tradition and to characterise significance of each dimension.
2. To carry out a comparative study of the intangible cultural heritage rights, proposing solutions for preservation of intangible cultural heritage including Song and Dance Festival in Latvia.
3. Based on research data, develop theoretical argumentation for the law "On Preservation of Latvian Intangible Cultural Heritage" that is carried out by the Ministry of Culture in cooperation with Latvian National Centre for Culture.
4. To elaborate a set of qualitative and quantitative indicators for defining sustainability of theSong and Dance Festival; test it in a comparative (Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia) study on sustainability of the Song and Dance Festivals, to develop scenarios for the development of Song and Dance Festival tradition and to design monitoring system for the revitalisation of tradition that could be adapted in Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia.
5. To adjust and adapt the criteria of the sustainability of Song and Dance festival tradition for evaluation of sustainable growth of other cultural traditions that are forming national identity (e.g., annual festivities, such as Midsummer night festivity or cemetery festivity, singing tradition, cooking traditions etc.).
6. To communicate results of the research on local, regional, national and international level in conferences, seminars, academic publications and monograph.

Main results of the Programme

Exhibition (2016) “Everyday practices of arts groups in the Song and Dance Celebration interim”.

Survey (2017) of Latvian, Lithuanian and Estonian residents about their participation in Song and Dance Celebration, in folk art and amateur art groups,  and other leisure time activities.

Survey results available in Latvian: pdf.

Pētījuma rezultāti (5,4 MB)

The monograph “The Song and Dance Celebration. The Anatomy of a Tradition” (eds. Rūta Muktupāvela, Anda Laķe, Jāņa Rozes apgāds, 2018)  is an integrated research result of the state research programme (SRP) “HABITUS: Sustainability of Latvian Cultural Traditions in an Innovative Environment” implemented by the Research Centre of the Latvian Academy of Culture (LAC) and represents the collective achievement of the researchers involved in its implementation. The monograph contains only a selection of the data and findings obtained in the course of the implementation of the programme, subordinating its contents to the primary purpose – specifying the transmission criteria and preconditions for safeguarding the Song and Dance Celebration. The theoretical studies and contemporary interpretations of the phenomenon of tradition in the humanities and social sciences enabled researchers to make a purposeful selection of the manifestations of the Song and Dance Celebration tradition to be analysed in a more detailed way and to design a corresponding strategy of acquiring empirical data, as well as to test innovative approaches to the empirical research of the tradition, for example, visual research methods.

Please contact:

Dr. art. Rūta Muktupāvela, ruta.muktupavela@lka.edu.lv

Dr. sc. soc. Anda Laķe, anda.lake@lka.edu.lv