Inclusion of Vanishing Cultural Heritage in a Sustainable Rural Development Strategy–Prospects, Opportunities, Recommendations

Cultural heritage consolidates regional cultural identity, expands social capital, and stimulates local communities. These functions make it an important component of sustainable socioeconomic development. The objective of the article is to identify vanishing components of cultural heritage in Małopolskie Voivodeship and propose ways to use them to enhance regional development and promote rural cultural heritage. Moreover, the article aims at identifying such components of cultural heritage that could be included and presented more extensively in future strategic documents despite being disregarded or only superficially acknowledged to date. The research involved a representative sample of the adult residents of rural areas in Małopolskie Voivodeship, Poland (n = 400) using the computer-aided telephone interviewing method (CATI). The research shows that the awareness of the people in Małopolskie Voivodeship is dominated by the ‘classical’ perception of cultural heritage components. The respondents confirmed that traditional professions were still practiced in the voivodeship, and that artisan products were available. The most common of these were beekeeping, sculpture, carpentry, lacemaking and embroidery, smithery, pottery, plaiting, weaving, and musical instrument production. According to the respondents, the most frequent components of vanishing cultural heritage were shrines on trees, old barns (69%), wells (55%) and old root cellars (40%). The respondents most often mentioned farmers’ wives’ associations as independent social and professional organizations in rural areas that promote food traditions. A survey, literature review, and study of strategic documents demonstrated that digital cultural heritage was absent in the responses and strategic documents, even though it is found in rural Małopolskie Voivodeship as rustic cyberfolklore, for example. It is a research gap worth investigating.