The panel assembles papers that analyze how heritage as a category is produced and re-produced in political process of negotiation. It looks at the production of heritage in the context of regional, national, and international institutions and identifies the actors who brand objects, places, and events as “heritage.” The papers show how the status of rarity and threat connected with the notion of heritage is produced rather than found in these processes of negotiation and how assigning the label of heritage affects objects, places, and events that are not designated as heritage. The panel highlights competition as one of the major mechanisms in the making of heritage, ranging from efforts to strengthen the local economy by attracting tourists to full-blown colonial warfare.