Our Conclusion

Our analysis of the UNESCO World Heritage dataset has shown that the World Heritage List can be seen not just as a collection of culturally and environmentally important locations. It also is a record of official recognition that has been shaped by political factors and the ability of different countries to engage in this process and have the infrastructure in place for the inscription process. The geographic distribution that has been revealed through our visualizations show that some regions, such as Europe, have more prominent representations than others that have had significant cultural achievements in the past. This reveals that the process of inscription may not solely be based on cultural value of the location, but also the ability for countries to have nominated these locations. Additionally their power to have the infrastructure in place for the process that involves significant document and committee approval for inscription. 

This understanding that the World Heritage List serves to underscore the need to think carefully about the ways in which global cultural narratives are constructed. Rather than a neutral representation of the most valuable locations in the world, the data set represents the systems through which heritage is defined and recognized on a global scale. In a way, UNESCO does not make location more valuable, but instead it changes the way the world interacts with the location, supporting the idea that the way we classify reality has more impact on how we perceive it than the reality itself does.