A Civilisation in Museum Space: Some Theoretical Approaches.

Museum Worlds, 2015

2012

This chapter presents a theoretical framework and justification for the volume's broader aim of devising and showcasing critical perspectives on the museum (as an institution) and on museums (as a series of individual specificities and contingencies) from a range of disciplinary and intellectual traditions. We approach this task from the proposition that museum theory cannot be divorced from museum practice, arguing that museums are best understood as sites of “conjuncture” where different disciplines, theoretical approaches, and practices meet. Our starting point is Nicholas Thomas's argument that museums can be understood as a method which is itself generative of theory rather than simply as a site on which to perform theoretical models of analysis. We build on this approach by analyzing the ways in which contributors to this volume have generated new forms of knowledge using museums to think with. Among these approaches are the moves beyond governmentality paradigms toward an understanding of the nondiscursive, affective functions of museums; and a recognition of the role of museums in the production of reflexive forms of knowledge and citizenship formation, as well their activist role in society. We argue, in the final instance, that the field of museums provides an expanded field of vision for those of us interested in following particular theoretical debates, but that it does so precisely because this field is constituted through a series of methodological practices that have and continue to be key to the ways in which disciplines are shaped, public space is understood and produced, subjectivities are shaped, and relations between peoples are enabled. If there was ever any doubt as to the contributions of museums to the formation of culture or their relevance to innovation in both theory and disciplinary practices, we hope our collection goes a long way to demonstrating the value of thinking otherwise.

Museum International, 2009

This is the text of a talk given on 14 June 1982 at the 'Museums in Education' course held at the Commonwealth Institute, London, by the British Council.

2015

Museum Theory is the first volume of a four volume set of International Handbooks of Museum Studies. Edited by myself and Kylie Message, the book is organised around the central idea of conjunctures – between theory, practice and context. It therefore looks at ideas about museums, the relationships between various disciplines and knowledge production in museums, and at practice -the latter in terms of the application of theory in museum contexts as well as thinking about practice as a form of 'doing theory'. Contributors come from many different countries. They include early career scholars as well as internationally renowned figures and they come from practice as well as academia. The range of museums discussed is also wide and from around the world.

Journal of Religion in Europe, 2011

In using the critical term museality in aesthetics of religion, it is our aim in this article to reveal the socio-cultural embeddedness of museums in Western societies and beyond. To do this we draw on two distinct cultural and sociological models of society, dispositive theory and Luhmann's communicational systems theory. Dispositive theory allows us to include non-discursive practices and materialisations in the aesthetic analysis of religious identification strategies mediated through museums and exhibitions. The boundaries, environment and self-referentiality of the system museum are discussed with a view to the shifting place and visibility of religious and secular messages in museum contexts. The focus on museality leads beyond museums to discover object wanderings, religious re-interpretations and museum displays in a number of other socio-cultural fields.

Beyond Modernity. Do Ethnography Museums Need Ethnography?, pp. 3-20, 2013

2012

Museum history converges with the emergence of the modern society. The understanding of the museum social role, over the last two centuries, leads to think about the French Revolution new social paradigms.

This is a book in the form of an essay, which, in a systematic but readily intelligible manner and with reference to many prominent international examples, attempts to offer a panoramic and cohesive image of the relationship between culture, society, the museum institution, the museum building and the museum exhibition.

Anais do Museu Paulista: História e Cultura Material, 2013

The history of museums could get inspired on the procedures of material studies and of Anthropology in order to take a new stand and move away from the institutional approach and consider the approach of objects traditionally labelled as museum objects. The so-called "museum pieces" are supposed to have a number of characteristics, particularly some great historical and artistic qualities, sometimes an heritage quality, but above all the ability to make "friends" around the community or around the world. In all these respects, it is proposed here a number of research procedures that may supplement or enrich the directions usually assigned to the history of institutions.