Deconstituting Museums

Over the past 30 years, museums have turned to participation in the hope that direct involvement of non-museum staff would serve their claims to be accessible, inclusive, representative and diverse. And yet, adding participation to museums has often generated conflict, disappointment and anger. Deco...

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Κύριος συγγραφέας: Graham, Helen
Μορφή: Online
Γλώσσα:Αγγλικά
Έκδοση: UCL Press 2025
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Διαθέσιμο Online:ONIX_20250930T101509_9781800089136_4
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author Graham, Helen
author_browse Graham, Helen
author_facet Graham, Helen
author_sort Graham, Helen
collection Directory of Open Access Books
description Over the past 30 years, museums have turned to participation in the hope that direct involvement of non-museum staff would serve their claims to be accessible, inclusive, representative and diverse. And yet, adding participation to museums has often generated conflict, disappointment and anger. Deconstituting Museums argues that the difficulties produced by adding participatory practice arise from political incompatibility. In the representational liberal logics that underpin museum decision-making, trustees and professionals make decisions ‘on behalf of’ future generations and the public. This is a political infrastructure the book names ‘museum constitution’. Conversely, participation arises from ideas and practices from direct and horizontal political traditions, drawing those who act as facilitators into new relationships and expanding political imaginations. Through sustained engagement with theories of affect, materialism, and feminist and decolonial praxis, Helen Graham identifies techniques for deconstituting museums. She uses experimental writing as a method to turn away from the desire to right institutional wrongs and towards relational and directly negotiated ways of organising. In doing so she locates participation not as engagement but as a mode of governance that is enabled by, and enables, variant political ontologies. This is an alternative named ‘participatory worlding’. The affective work of facilitating participation has long tugged at and frayed museums’ constitutional liberal logics. Deconstituting Museums envisages how participation and its affects might be activated in reworking the politics of heritage.
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spelling doab-20.500.12854ir-1668412025-10-01T05:08:34Z Deconstituting Museums Graham, Helen museums participation affect worlding heritage participatory research action research experimental writing communities commons democracy agency experimental projects thema EDItEUR::G Reference, Information and Interdisciplinary subjects::GL Library and information sciences / Museology::GLZ Museology and heritage studies Over the past 30 years, museums have turned to participation in the hope that direct involvement of non-museum staff would serve their claims to be accessible, inclusive, representative and diverse. And yet, adding participation to museums has often generated conflict, disappointment and anger. Deconstituting Museums argues that the difficulties produced by adding participatory practice arise from political incompatibility. In the representational liberal logics that underpin museum decision-making, trustees and professionals make decisions ‘on behalf of’ future generations and the public. This is a political infrastructure the book names ‘museum constitution’. Conversely, participation arises from ideas and practices from direct and horizontal political traditions, drawing those who act as facilitators into new relationships and expanding political imaginations. Through sustained engagement with theories of affect, materialism, and feminist and decolonial praxis, Helen Graham identifies techniques for deconstituting museums. She uses experimental writing as a method to turn away from the desire to right institutional wrongs and towards relational and directly negotiated ways of organising. In doing so she locates participation not as engagement but as a mode of governance that is enabled by, and enables, variant political ontologies. This is an alternative named ‘participatory worlding’. The affective work of facilitating participation has long tugged at and frayed museums’ constitutional liberal logics. Deconstituting Museums envisages how participation and its affects might be activated in reworking the politics of heritage. 2025-10-01T05:08:33Z 2025-10-01T05:08:33Z 2025-09-30T08:19:22Z 2025 book ONIX_20250930T101509_9781800089136_4 https://library.oapen.org/handle/20.500.12657/106192 9781800089136 9781800089112 9781800089129 9781800089143 https://directory.doabooks.org/handle/20.500.12854/166841 eng open access image/jpeg n/a https://library.oapen.org/bitstream/20.500.12657/106192/1/9781800089136.pdf UCL Press 10.14324/111.9781800089136 10.14324/111.9781800089136 29b9f0a3-1b0d-4bdd-99d7-b4d3432d7fcc 9781800089136 9781800089112 9781800089129 9781800089143 London open access
spellingShingle museums
participation
affect
worlding
heritage
participatory research
action research
experimental writing
communities
commons
democracy
agency
experimental projects
thema EDItEUR::G Reference, Information and Interdisciplinary subjects::GL Library and information sciences / Museology::GLZ Museology and heritage studies
Graham, Helen
Deconstituting Museums
title Deconstituting Museums
title_full Deconstituting Museums
title_fullStr Deconstituting Museums
title_full_unstemmed Deconstituting Museums
title_short Deconstituting Museums
title_sort deconstituting museums
topic museums
participation
affect
worlding
heritage
participatory research
action research
experimental writing
communities
commons
democracy
agency
experimental projects
thema EDItEUR::G Reference, Information and Interdisciplinary subjects::GL Library and information sciences / Museology::GLZ Museology and heritage studies
topic_facet museums
participation
affect
worlding
heritage
participatory research
action research
experimental writing
communities
commons
democracy
agency
experimental projects
thema EDItEUR::G Reference, Information and Interdisciplinary subjects::GL Library and information sciences / Museology::GLZ Museology and heritage studies
url ONIX_20250930T101509_9781800089136_4
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