Museums, Society, Inequality

Museums, Society, Inequality explores the wide-ranging social roles and responsibilities of the museum. It brings together diverse international perspectives from across the globe (including Australia, South Africa, Kenya, Greece, the USA and the UK) which collectively seek to stimulate critical debate, to inform the work of practictioners and policy makers and to advance recognition of the agency of museums; their purpose, responsibilities and value to society. The notion that the cultural and the social are inextricably linked and more particularly, that museums have the potential to act as agents of social change is neither new nor radical. However debates claiming the museum's social agency, that have for many years been marginalized, have moved centre stage and fundamental questions about the museum's social purpose and responsibility, and in particular its potential to impact on both the indicators and the cases of social inequality, are subject to increasing scrutiny and debate. This challenging new work is divided into three parts. The first offers different understandings of the social agency of the museum. Whilst there is some consensus, with each contributor presenting recent thinking on the impact, both positive and negative, that musems have on society and the lives of specific individuals and communities. The second section presents ways in which museums have sought to engage with contemporary social concerns, to tackle specific manifestations of inequality and to act, in partnership with other agencies and with communities, in order to instigate social change. The final section begins to imagine the character of inclusive musuems and the processes that might be employed to enable them to become more relevant, effective and useful to society in the future. Though the authors hold wide-ranging perspectives on the museum's social role, they all acknowledge that museums both influence society and must also respond to its changing characteristics and concerns. This crucial new work is essential for all museum academics, practitioners and students.

ISBN 0415260604   Pages 288 ISBN13 9780415260602 (What's this?)   Volumes 1 Publisher Taylor & Francis Ltd   Weight (grammes) 567 Imprint Routledge   Published in London Format Paperback   Series title Museum Meanings Publication date 24 Jan 2002   Height (mm) 246 Library of Congress AM7.M8853   Width (mm) 174 DEWEY 069   Spine width (mm) 17 DEWEY edition DC21   Academic level Tertiary education, Professional / Scholarly

		List of illustrations
		Notes on contributors
		Preface
		Acknowledgements
Pt. 1		Museums and society: issues and perspectives
1		Museums and the combating of social inequality: roles, responsibilities, resistance by Richard Sandell		3
2		The good enough visitor by Mark O'Neill		24
3		Measuring social value by Carol Scott		41
4		Architectures of inclusion: museums, galleries and inclusive communities by Andrew Newman and Fiona McLean		56
5		The therapeutic potential of museums as pathways to inclusion by Lois H. Silverman		69
6		Buried in the footnotes: the absence of disabled people in the collective imagery of our past by Annie Delin		84
7		Representing lesbians and gay men in British social history museums by Angela Vanegas		98
8		Remembering ourselves in the work of museums: trauma and the place of the personal in the public by Gaynor Kavanagh		110
Pt. 2		Strategies for inclusion
9		Harnessing the power of history by Ruth J. Abram		125
10		Representing diversity and challenging racism: the Migration Museum by Viv Szekeres		142
11		Developing a community of practice: museums and reconciliation in Australia by Lynda Kelly and Phil Gordon		153
12		The National Museums of Kenya and social responsibility: working with street children by Frederick Karanja Mirara		175
13		Museums and the health of the community by Jocelyn Dodd		182
14		Children's museums in hospitals by Despina Kalessopoulou		190
Pt. 3		Towards the inclusive museum
		More...

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