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Inclusion in museums: a matter of social justice
Abstract
Calls for greater inclusion in US museums have recently become hard to ignore. The intersection of inclusion and museums, however, has longer roots and has primarily been understood as a means for museums to ensure and increase public access to their activities and services. Despite the field’s long-standing attention to inclusion, visitor and employee demographic studies do not indicate that US museums’ publicness significantly extends beyond a privileged subset of the population. In this paper, I argue that inclusion in museums is a matter of social justice. Using Nancy Fraser’s two-dimensional theory of social justice, I argue that inclusion efforts in museums have thus far been unsuccessful because there has been (1) insufficient attention to demands of recognition and (2) insufficient coordination of redistribution and recognition endeavours. Developing a proper appreciation of the justice-structured aspect of inclusion is more likely to produce the results to which many museum professionals aspire.
... In 2014, the national museum professional organization, American Alliance of Museums (AAM), released its first diversity and inclusion policy statement. Despite the museum sector's attention to the idea of inclusion, museums have not been able to diversify their workforce (Kinsley 2016). In 2015, the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation found from a demographic survey of art museum staff that 76% of the workforce was white with only a slight change in 2018-72% (2019). ...
... Diversity encompasses visible and nonvisible differences including culture, socio-economic status, and values; with the intent to celebrate, promote, and respect those differences (Sandell and Nightingale 2012). An inclusive approach suggests that museums actively address barriers, especially for people at risk of exclusion (Kinsley 2016). For museums, inclusion can be addressed through the intentional process of combating exclusion through cultural, social, political, and economic means, demonstrating respect for all members of society (American Alliance of Museums 2018; Coleman 2018). ...
... Exclusion from educational and economic systems is mirrored in the exclusion from museums (Kinsley 2016). Individual educational attainment is connected to the way people think about, participate in, and enjoy a variety of art and cultural forms (DiMaggio and Useem 1980;DiMaggio and Mukhtar 2008;Falk 1995;Phillip 1993;Reeves 2015;NEA 2015). ...
Museum visitors are not reflective of the diversity present in communities around the nation. In this study, we investigate the racial and ethnic diversity of art museum participants as well as the potential motivations and barriers to visiting a museum. Using the General Social Survey, we examine race and ethnicity and arts participation in the USA. We find Black individuals are less likely to attend an art museum than white individuals. Certain motivations and barriers to participating may explain part of the lack of diversity. We find Black and Latinx individuals are motivated to participate in art museums for cultural heritage reasons more than white individuals, but race and ethnicity are unrelated to perceiving admission fees as a barrier. This research highlights the urgency in the field to make museums more inclusive.
... This distinction is doubtless not the right way to favour inclusion through art; therefore, curators are called to investigate the potential of artworks -and museums -in addressing a message and transferring meanings and knowledge to the audience, also taking into account the social context. A positive perspective on inclusion is adopted by Kinsley (2016), as it is the way to mirror the diversity in visitors and workforce in a museum. The more diverse the workforce, the higher the chance to provide the cultural service that a museum offers. ...
... New digital technologies are, in some cases, a way to enable inclusion, as they can favour the experience of visitors with impairment, thus promoting the implementation of diversity policies. The latter were thought about in literature with reference to visitors and the workforce (Kinsley, 2016), but they can be renewed through novel solutions. This is also part of sustainable goals, in line with previous studies on what might be brought to the environment (Lord et al., 2012) and the local community (Orea-Giner et al., 2021), while a further extension to SDGs might be significant for future activities. ...
The purpose of this chapter is to track back the recent evolutions in the domain of museum management, as well as the upcoming changes. The factors shaping change will most likely affect the decisions and the activities of the key entities in museums context in the coming years. Technological innovations, changes in society, the growing and different requests from the audience, and the managerialization process—besides still ongoing—of some entities of the museum domain are among the engines of the ongoing evolution. This evolution is commonly recalled by the pivotal international institutions, and the ongoing change can be observed in the dissemination activities of these institutions, in the promotion they made, as well as in the contents of the recently issued reports, and in their indications that stimulate the debate between museum companies themselves and the world of research.
... In museums, researchers have reached similar conclusions (Davies & Shaw, 2013;Heidelberg, 2019;Kinsley, 2016). Indeed, Heidelberg (2019) stressed that individuals from diverse backgrounds are underrepresented. ...
... The author asserts that despite several initiatives to diversify the workforce to accommodate individuals limited by disability, economic means, or other diversity, museums must develop decision-making processes that dismantle discriminatory practices. The author's findings echo what other authors (Davies & Shaw, 2013;Kinsley, 2016) have said about museums and the lack of diversity or inclusion, especially in management positions. ...
... Simply put, we should support the arts and artists because it is the ethical and just thing to do, and this support can call attention to important social causes or elevate the voices of the voiceless (Hamilton, 1975;Kinsley, 2016;Williams, 2021). This attempt to garner support for arts organizations highlights their potential contributions to the pursuits of multiple forms of justice-rectifying racial, religious, and sexual prejudices, developing meaningful policies to address the climate crisis, or even cultivating support for labor unions as a means of employee empowerment (Carr, 2004;Evans, 1969;Ewell, 1973;Kenin, 1967). ...
... Often, artistic activity and arts organizations are the vehicles through which people pursue social justice objectives (Coffee, 2008;Haque, 2020). As a result, artists and arts organizations are playing supporting roles to other causes rather than advocating for increased funding or engagement for themselves (Kinsley, 2016;Milbrandt, 2002). There is general agreement that arts organizations have a pivotal role in communicating the importance of social justice and promoting ethical behavior, but arguments citing this role as an important reason for supporting arts organizations appear to be rare. ...
American arts organizations are locked in a continuous fight for their survival as a result of their demanding operational contexts. Virtually every arts organization engages in some form of formal or informal advocacy in order to raise public awareness and secure financial support or political goodwill. While there are almost as many different advocacy strategies as there are arts organizations, studies that trace changes in strategic employment over time are rare, as advocates are typically focused on present issues and the immediate future. This research seeks to address this knowledge gap. Through a systematic review of over 260 scholarly sources, editorials , blogs, think pieces, and miscellaneous other pro-arts arguments, this article identifies five main arguments for supporting the arts that have been commonly used by arts advocates since the inception of the National Endowment for the Arts. This article presents a theoretical typology that is useful for understanding these arguments and the thematic connections between them. It concludes with a discussion of general trends towards strategic isomorphism and research sophistication among these strategies, then offers avenues for future research that may assist arts advocates with evaluating strategies' success so as to improve their future effectiveness. K E Y W O R D S advocacy trends, arts advocacy, arts organizations, organizational context, placemaking, resource dependency theory, strategy Practitioner Points • Advocacy strategies used by arts advocates and organizations are growing more sophisticated but have remained fundamentally unchanged in over five decades. • Over time, these arguments have gradually begun to resemble and inform one another, giving birth to synthesized-but perhaps stale-arguments for the arts. • Practitioners and researchers should focus on defining and determining strategic effectiveness in order to inform future advocacy development.
... These examples illustrate the possibility of expanding physical access (Chiovatto et al., 2010) to science museums or informal setting infrastructure (Dawson, 2014b) by overcoming tangible barriers. Other authors (Archer et al., 2016;Chiovatto et al., 2010;Chittenden, 2011;Dawson (2014a); Feinstein & Meshoulam, 2013;Kinsley, 2016;Lourenço, 2016;Silva, 2015) also acknowledge the existence of barriers and limitations within institutions that hinder the strengthening of the relationship between museums and public and expand the meaning and senses related to the access. ...
... In the United States, Kinsley (2016) highlights the increase in efforts to promote social inclusion in museums to ensure public access to their activities and services. However, demographic studies on museum visitors in the US reveal that these efforts have not significantly extended beyond a privileged group. ...
The term social participation is widely used and has various meanings in different contexts. This article aims to enhance the understanding of social participation in science museums. The research was conducted using a cultural‐historical perspective in six steps: (1) survey to identify the meanings attributed to the term social participation and actions considered participatory in Brazilian science museums; (2) content analysis with coding; (3) literature review on social participation meanings; (4) analysis and revision of categories; (5) survey for educators from Brazilian science museums to validate the dimensions emerged in the first survey; (6) final analysis: synthesis of the dimensions of social participation and proposal of a model. As a result, we recognized five dimensions that contribute to the concept of social participation in science museums: “access”—removing barriers to participation that promote social exclusion; “identity and diversity”—creating a multicultural space that examines and redefines oppressive and unequal relationships; “co‐creation and authorship”—fostering different forms of collaboration with audiences; “interaction and dialogue”—expanding opportunities for interaction with exhibitions; “exercise of citizenship”—empowering the audiences to participate in social change. Although these dimensions provide insights into social participation in science museums, limitations exist. These dimensions can contribute to developing museum practices that dialogue with communities and strengthen social participation in science museums.
... Even among museums with explicitly inclusive institutional cultures, research shows social inclusion ideologies can be difficult to implement. For instance, staff members might have diverging understandings of what it means to be inclusive and how to achieve it (Kinsley, 2016;Tlili, 2008). Such issues may cause museums to constitute or perpetuate gender-exclusionary practices, for instance, in the institution's marketing strategies or staff recruitment policies (cf. ...
... We are not alone in advocating for radical changes to the way we deconstruct, reconstruct, and disseminate science in museums. Dawson (2014b), Feinstein and Meshoulam (2014), Kinsley (2016), and Ash and Lombana (2013), made similar calls for institutional transformation. These voices all point to the need for museums to reimagine science "in the image of the underserved and invest in new programs that are grounded in the cultures and concerns of the very people who currently avoid science museums" (Feinstein, 2017, p. 536). ...
A realisation is growing among science museum practitioners and researchers that quick fixes or one-off initiatives cannot accomplish engaging a broader diversity of publics in museum activities. Rather, exclusion mechanisms in science museums often are subtle, are ingrained institutionally, and may be beyond the reach of individual staff members, requiring concerted efforts on multiple levels to counteract them. Here, we analyse the current situation with particular focus on gender and science exhibitions. We show how museums can locate gendered and gendering mechanisms that co-determine science museum exhibition design and experience in a hierarchy of levels, ranging from the level of humanity all the way to the individual museum visitor. We give examples of how these mechanisms may interact to produce gender exclusion. We conclude by discussing implications of the framework for research and practice on gender inclusion in science museums and offering suggestions for ways to move forward.
... Director of the National Museum of African Art in Washington D.C, Ngaire Blankenberg, said: "Museums are institutions that carry a lot of systemic baggage from their colonial origins, but they are vital public spaces to reconsider how we connect and contend with one another and the planet, and where can refine, heal and reconcile" (Valentine, 2021). While national governments, like the UK, Australia, and Canada, have mandated museums to become more inclusive (Australia Council for the Arts 2020; Hooper-Greenhill 1994;Kinsley 2016;Sandell and Nightingale 2012), American museums have had difficulty finding a path that is welcoming to all. ...
... As a result of the elite history of museums, people have varying cultural and leisure values (Falk, 1995). Those excluded from educational and economic systems also face exclusion from museums (Dawson, 2014;Kinsley, 2016;Sandell, 1998). However, research suggests preferences have moved from elite "highbrow" taste to omnivorous (e.g., Peterson, 1992;Peterson & Kern, 1996). ...
... Crucially, the "authoritative" nature of museum records reveals that what is to be learned in museums is highly selective and decided upon by curators, cultural ministries, and other political bodies. Given the role of public funding and national agendas in many museums, these learning infrastructures are riddled with absences, injustices and exclusion (Kinsley, 2016) that complicate or contradict intended learning processes. Given our focus on infrastructures defined as sociotechnical networks to provide services (e.g., water, energy transport etc.), a concept of learning seems needed that is less embedded within (state sanctioned) pedagogy and educational ideals and more informed by encounters with urban life itself. ...
... https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6178-7757 ENDNOTE 1 A marked exception are of course research contributions that specifically foreground urban infrastructures of learning such as museums (Ang, 2017;Bakker et al., 2020;Ellenbogen et al., 2004;Huvilla, 2013;Kinsley, 2016;Unsal, 2019). ...
Research on urban infrastructure has advanced to the forefront of human geography inquiry in the last two decades. Among other topics, geographers have looked into the privatization and neo‐liberal splintering of urban infrastructures; the failings of infrastructures and the power relations revealed within these failings; the political ecology of infrastructural provisions; the specific infrastructural challenges of cities within the so‐called Global South; and the entanglements of everyday experiences, affects and emotions with infrastructures. Yet, little attention has been drawn to the ways in which infrastructures need to be learned to fulfil their role of smoothly providing people with diverse services. Given the increasing spatial mobility of populations (e.g., as refugees, migrants, expatriates, and tourists), as well as the accelerating pace of infrastructural change (e.g., in the name of Smart City developments) however, it has become more salient than ever to open‐up urban infrastructural research more explicitly towards critical inquiries of learning. Thus, this paper proposes to re‐think urban infrastructures not only as socio‐material configurations, but more specifically as important spaces for learning.
... A feeling of belonging may be hampered when people are unable to identify with the activities offered. It should also be noted that acceptability of cultural offers may be tainted by centuries of colonialism and a feeling that settings (e.g., museums, libraries) are not a sphere for people from non-white backgrounds [35][36][37][38][39][40]. Hence, where activities are offered may shape how far they are perceived to be acceptable. ...
Introduction
Social prescribing addresses non‐medical issues (e.g., loneliness, financial worries, housing problems) affecting physical and/or mental health. It involves connecting people to external support or services, including ‘cultural offers’–events, groups and activities run within or by cultural organisations. Such offers need to be acceptable and accessible to diverse populations if forming part of a social prescription.
Methods
A scoping review was conducted to identify what existing literature, conducted in the United Kingdom, tells us about tailoring cultural offers for older people (aged 60+ years) from ethnic minority groups. Relevant literature was searched for on electronic databases, through Google, via a questionnaire to cultural organisations and by contacting the study's advisory group.
Results
Screening of 906 references–59 of which were read as full documents–resulted in six sources being included in the review. Some cultural activities described within them were run in traditional cultural spaces (e.g., museums, art galleries). Others were held in community centres. Data suggested that attending with others could reduce concerns about belonging. Barriers to engagement included low energy, language, poor confidence, accessing transport and unfamiliarity with a setting and/or activities. Provision of familiar food could help make people feel welcomed.
Conclusions
Reviewed papers showed that consulting with target groups is important to ensure that activities are inclusive and sympathetically delivered. The review also highlighted a paucity of published research on the topic; this means that cultural providers have little evidence to draw on when developing cultural offers for older people from ethnic minority groups.
... A two-way dynamic relationship is proposed, where visitors also co-construct the museum's content through different sensory perceptions. As Kinsley (2016) argues "inclussion in museums is a matter of social justice". ...
... But only if museums are able to attract and engage a diversity of the public, can they have this social mission. Promotional activities are crucial in maintaining museums accessibility to people from diverse backgrounds by providing these under-resourced or marginalized communities access to relevant information [6]. Museums should modify outreach to the audience segment they intend to reach, consistently creating an inclusive space which echoes the diversity around them and giving everyone a chance to engage with the cultural heritage. ...
With the development of society, people are paying more and more attention to cultural protection, and museums have become the core of protecting and sharing cultural heritage. Today's museums are not just exhibition halls. They are educational centers and social spaces that help cultivate a sense of history, cultural identity, and community cohesion. However, many traditional museum practices are difficult to attract modern audiences, especially young tourists who pursue immersive experiences. This study analyzed the influencing factors of well-organized and well-designed promotional activities in museums, with a focus on exploring how to strengthen the role of museums as educational, social, and cultural resources. By studying core principles such as structured planning, creativity, and feasibility, this article provides feasible suggestions for strengthening museum promotion strategies. With the integration of modern technology, enhanced interactivity, and widespread use of digital media and targeted activities, museums have the opportunity to expand their audience, cultivate sustained connections, and promote cultural diversity. The study ultimately emphasizes the value of strategic external connections and positions museums as active contributors to cultural dialogue. These perspectives aim to help museums adapt to technological advancements, change public expectations, and lay the foundation for further research on digital participation, visitor protection, and international cultural exchange.
... As a result, museums are significant public cultural and educational organizations, so it is critical to understand how they embrace people with ASD. To achieve the larger societal objectives of diversity and equal access, inclusion for individuals with ASD must align with these principles (Henderson and Atencio 2007;Paquet Kinsley 2016;Shaw et al. 2017). ...
This study aims to provide an overview of recent advancements in museum strategies and practices, as well as an assessment of how well they meet the requirements of individuals with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). In this context, the researchers conducted a quantitative survey using questionnaires in Attica's museums. According to the research's main findings, many museum employees lack formal knowledge or training related to ASD. Nevertheless, they are firmly in favor of such training. Attica museums lack programs or activities specifically designed for individuals with autism. Few museums in Attica have the resources and infrastructure needed to be deemed accessible to those with ASD; however, they emphasized that they are very affirmative about changes. The utmost obstacles to accessibility and inclusivity for people with ASD, according to the research, are inadequate planning, a lack of infrastructure and finance, and a lack of trained staff.
... During the cultural experience, the museum and visitors dialogue and interact (Marini and Agostino 2022). Moreover, according to Kinsley (2016), museums have recently started focusing their management approach on invisible customers, with specific reference to people with disabilities. An inclusive management approach thus requires reinforcing the emotional dimension of the service by offering visitors with a disability a unique and memorable experience (Ruiz-Alba et al. 2019;Wiastuti et al. 2020). ...
This paper explores an emerging research field that considers both digital technologies and social inclusion to create a novel approach to museum management. It investigates the use of digital technologies for developing new services for people with disabilities in terms of the creation of museum inclusivity based on the case of the Museum of Geology and Paleontology located in Florence. The study analyses a special project consisting of a digital tour supported by a robot that allowed disabled people to visit the institution virtually from their homes. The results indicate that the quality of the visits and the experience were perceived by the visitors as completely real and not simply virtual; consequently, the results appear particularly promising when compared with other technologies such as virtual tours and augmented reality.
... Museums face tensions between artistic values and public funding (Lewis & Brooks, 2005). National governments, like the UK, Australia, and Canada, have mandated museums to become more inclusive (Australia Council for the Arts, 2020;Hooper-Greenhill, 1994;Kinsley, 2016;Sandell & Nightingale, 2012), to develop social initiatives and contribute to strengthening of social ties and promoting the participation of all citizens in cultural life (UNESCO, 2019). In "postcolonial societies, such as Australia, reconciling the past raises difficult questions for current national identities, and thus museums are faced with making politicized curatorial decisions, even in deciding not to address such questions" (Brenton & Bouckaert, 2021, p. 723). ...
While art should be for everyone, public institutions like museums are not always inclusive to all members of society. Arts participation varies by sociodemographic characteristics despite the numerous benefits of the arts. To date, much of the research has focused on how visitor characteristics influence museums, but how do museum characteristics influence arts participation? We employ a conjoint experiment where respondents assess how they value different art museum attributes. In particular, we examine differences in cultural representation of artists and museum programming as well as accessibility in terms of object labels and cost. Our findings support the need for greater use of inclusionary practices and cultural representation in museums, particularly for more relatable language labels and more community‐based program events. We also find notable differences across subgroups, such as partisanship and race, emphasizing the need for more representative, accessible, and inclusive museums.
... Thus, museums of all types have empowered AAM to lead the sector. According to American Alliance of Museum (2019b, p. 4), the working group study yielded five critical insights, including: "(1) every museum professional must do personal work to face unconscious bias (Swensen and Guttormsen 2020), (2) debate on definitions must not hinder progress, (3) inclusion is central to the effectiveness and sustainability of museums, (4) systemic change is vital to long-term, genuine progress, and (5) empowered, inclusive leadership is essential at all levels of an organization" (Coffee 2008;Egholk and Jensen 2016;Kinsley 2016;Taylor 2017;Vermeulen et al. 2019). Although I agree, in whole or in part with these findings, museums should note a few blind spots if they intend to meaningfully address the enduring issues of access, diversity, equity, and inclusion (ADEI), which have prevented them from maximizing their relevance to the communities in which they exist to serve. ...
This article explores the research question, what potential blind spots should the American Alliance of Museums (AAM) help U.S. museums mind in their pursuit of access, diversity, equity, and inclusion (ADEI)? The aim of this article is to articulate potential areas of importance that could undermine US museums' ADEI efforts if ignored. If managed strategically and with focus, museum accreditation, boards, and staff can become agents to museums' pursuit of ADEI. Furthermore, given that museum staffs are so heavily female, future research should investigate the question, to what extent do women experience pay equity with their male colleagues? Similarly, research should explore, to what extent do Black, Indigenous, and museum staff of color enjoy pay equity with their White colleagues. In addition, museums would benefit from a study that answers the question, what attitudes, beliefs, and perceptions do museum boards and staff hold about ADEI and its importance?
... Informal science learning sites are concerned about diversity and equity (Kinsley 2016), including gender inclusion (Achiam & Holmegaard, 2017), though informal science learning sites are not always welcoming to youth from all social groups (Dawson, 2014). Inclusivity is often conceived as the promotion of an environment in which underrepresented groups of youth (e.g., females, and people from historically marginalized ethnic/cultural groups) are made to feel welcome (Ainscow & César, 2006). ...
Little research has examined the associations between perceived inclusivity within informal science learning sites, youth program belonging and perceptions of program career preparation. This study explored relations between these factors at three timepoints (T1 = start of program, T2 = 3 months and T3 = 12 months after start). Participants were a diverse sample of 209 adolescents participating in STEM youth programs within informal science learning sites situated in the United States and United Kingdom (70% females: M age = 15.27, SD age = 1.60), with 53.1% British and 64.1% non-White. Path analysis revealed that only perceptions of inclusivity for own social identity group (i.e., gender, ethnicity) at T1 were associated with T2 STEM youth program belonging. There was a significant indirect effect of T1 perceptions of inclusivity for one's own social identity groups on T3 perceptions of program career preparation via T2 program belonging. This study highlights that, over time, perceptions of inclusivity around youth's own social identity groups (i.e., gender and ethnicity/culture) are related to a sense of youth program belonging, which in turn is later associated with perceptions of program career preparation.
... Sites of national heritage in the USA, Australia and England tend to be visited by an audience of well-educated, middle-class people from politically dominant ethnicities (Black, 2012). Indeed, the cultural capital associated with visiting national museums and heritage sites for middle-class visitors has been well documented, as has the extent to which this practice excludes those from other demographics (Bennett, 1995;Bounia et al., 2012;Janes, 2016;Kinsley, 2016;Merriman, 1991). Alternatively, sites that address dissonant and openly contested histories attract a more socially and ethnically diverse audience (Smith, 2021, p. 142). ...
Heritage sites and places are often mobilized to represent a group's identity and sense of place and belonging. This paper will illustrate how heritage and museum visiting, as a leisure activity, facilitates or impedes recognition and redistribution in direct and indirect ways. Drawing on extensive qualitative interviews with visitors to 45 heritage sites and museums in the USA, Australia, and England, the paper demonstrates the importance of emotions in mundane struggles over recognition and misrecognition. How emotions uphold or challenge investments in heritage narratives are examined. The paper argues that heritage and heritage‐making is a valuable focus of analysis that reveals the nuances of how people sustain or impede claims for recognition and redistribution.
... The equitable distribution of public facilities is one of the major concerns of planners [8], and the distribution of museums is regarded as a matter of social justice [9]. Recently, some studies [10] have noticed the inequality caused by mismatching of the spatial distribution of populations and museums within cities, similar to inequality studies on other types of cultural relics [11,12]. ...
As the spaces for dialogue between the past and the future, museums are essential to human well-being and social sustainability. Here, we collected data from 328 cities in 31 provinces of mainland China from 1980 to 2019 to investigate the changes in number and spatial inequalities of museums. The results showed that: (1) in mainland China, there were only 137 museums in 1980, and while this increased to 5626 in 2019, China still possessed only four museums per million people; (2) the increasing number of museums lagged behind the growth rate of both the population and economy at both the province and city level; (3) the Gini coefficient of museums per million people was only 0.27 in 2019, indicating relative equality of visiting opportunities among the provinces of China; (4) the Gini coefficients of per capita museums in some provinces were higher than that of the whole nation, with the highest ~0.6 in 2010 and 0.4 in 2017; (5) the economic competitiveness and human well-being of a city were promoted by an increased number of museums. We suggest that the central government of China should increase the number of museums in all provinces, while some provinces should pay more attention to the inequality in the distribution of cultural facilities among cities.
... It would be at least presumptuous and likely overgeneralizing to attribute to "neoliberalization" contemporaneous developments within museum scholarship such as calls for inclusivity (Galla, 2016;R. P. Kinsley, 2016) and participation (Simon, 2010). In broad leaps, I've tried to suggest a drift from "inculcative" to "inclusive." From didactic, to, finally, exhibitions where the goal is not (explicitly, at least), to discipline. For speakers, there are all kinds of face-saving ways to tone down a command, such as joking, offering, promising, and so o ...
The Exhibitions of Impact (EOI) special issue of American Behavioral Scientist consists of six articles from authors in communication studies and rhetoric, public health, medicine and bioethics, memory studies, and art therapy. Each article profiles some exhibition or memorial related to a pressing social issue, including gun violence, racist terrorism, domestic violence, religious fundamentalism, corporations selling harmful products, and how society treats those regarded as cognitively and behaviorally different. First, examples from today’s headlines show a global outcry over racist monuments and artifacts, and a global pandemic, which casts doubt on the future of exhibitions. Historical examples and explanatory concepts are introduced, with a focus on public exhibitions which issue suggestions or commands, brazenly or in more indirect ways. A look at medical and health exhibits makes explicit how exhibitions try to get us to do something while being informative. While summaries of each article show the topics are diverse, racism and health inequities emerge as underlying themes. After considering performative exhibits, there is a call for a bioethically informed exhibition studies, capable of navigating the wide variety of exhibits out there, and able to express allyship while troubleshooting urgent problems.
... En este sentido, Prescha (2021) se refiere a que los museos abordan la inclusión como una tendencia, y no como un problema social en el que también están implicados. De este modo, los museos siguen incurriendo en lagunas al reconocimiento de la diversidad y de su distribución (Kinsley, 2016). La inclusión se refiere a una justifica social de muy diversas minorías, según discriminación por motivos étnicos y raciales, de discapacidad física y/o intelectual, de diversidad sexual, y otras minorías en riesgo de exclusión social. ...
Este trabajo aborda una revisión del tema de la musealización del arte y la historia en exposiciones y museos. Se ha realizado una revisión bibliográfica sistematizada basada en publicaciones de revistas científicas internacionales indexadas en los tres primeros cuartiles del SJR, del periodo de 2015 a 2021. La muestra comprende 267 artículos. Se han abordado dos niveles de análisis: descriptivo, basado en variables independientes del año de publicación, nombre de las revistas, índice de indexación, editorial, lugar de publicación y autoría; e interpretativo, basado en variables dependientes de los temas y contenidos de la muestra. Se han utilizado dos técnicas de análisis cualitativo: de clasificación y reducción de datos por codificación, y análisis de contenidos, utilizando la herramienta informática de Atlas.ti 8. En los resultados se muestran las características descriptivas de los artículos analizados, según variables independientes, y los resultados de temas y contenidos principales (comunicación, inclusión, TIC y participación). La discusión de los resultados y conclusiones abordan una revisión crítica sobre las características de cada tema y aportan información sobre los retos futuros para la musealización del arte y la historia en exposiciones y museos. ____________CÓMO CITAR: Tirado-de la Chica, A (2021). La Musealización del Arte y la Historia: estrategias discursivas y de comunicación, inclusión, transformación digital y participación en museos. REIDOCREA, 10(35), 1-18. http://doi.org/10.30827/Digibug.70949
... inclusion) mladih kao posjetitelja muzeja u razvoj usluge muzeja koja e bit prilagoena njihovim potrebama. Inkluzija podrazumijeva uklju ivanje razli itih ljudi u muzejsku zajednicu (Salgado, 2009) pa za muzeje predstavlja "ideal", nastojanje da osiguraju i pove aju javni pristup, tradicionalno manje zastupljenih skupina (Kinsley, 2016). Inkluzija mladih i prilagodba ponude muzeja mladima jedan je od najve ih izazova (Tzibazi, 2013). ...
Cilj je istraživanja otkriti kako studenti u Republici Hrvatskoj percipiraju muzeje s obzirom na nepostojanje prethodnih istraživanja. Konkretnije, nastojalo se (1) otkriti kako studenti opisuju muzeje i posjetitelje muzeja, (2) otkriti ulogu muzeja u društvu te (3) prikupiti prijedloge studenata radi poboljšanja iskustva posjeta muzeju. Korištena je kombinirana metodologija kvantitativnog i kvalitativnog istraživanja. Kako bi se dobio uvid u percepcije muzeja, kao instrument istraživanja korišten je anketni upitnik s otvorenim i zatvorenim pitanjima. Istraživanje je provedeno na uzorku od 110 ispitanika (studenata). Otkriveno je kako studenti u Republici Hrvatskoj imaju pozitivnu percepciju muzeja i posjetitelja muzeja. Uloga muzeja u društvu vezana je uz edukaciju te kulturno uzdizanje, dok je posebnost muzeja u usporedbi s drugim institucijama u tome što nude specifična znanja i vještine te izlažu autentične predmete. Kod prijedloga za poboljšanje iskustva posjete muzeju, interaktivnost i prilagodba usluga muzeja mladima, najčešće su isticana područja poboljšanja ponude muzeja. Ograničenja istraživanja vezana su uz vrstu i veličinu uzorka, namjerni prigodni uzorak od 110 studenata jednog zagrebačkog fakulteta. Ovo je prvi rad koji, koristeći kombiniranu metodologiju istraživanja, daje uvid u to kako studenti u Republici Hrvatskoj doživljavaju muzeje.
... At TMA, committees generally consist of local community members, scholars, museum partners, and key staff to advise on exhibition and program development, including reviewing exhibition themes and building contemporary connections as well as writing Community Voices labels and suggesting other authors, suggesting partnerships for onsite programming to support the exhibition, identifying potential offsite programming opportunities, and acting as a community ambassador for the exhibition and museum. Kinsley (2016) sees community advisory committees as a way to "unsettle the traditional and hegemonic role of the solo curator, creating instead a distributed model of knowledge production" (p.484). We believe that community advisory committees, while impactful, are imperfect. ...
Leadership in art museums is a changing construct: historically, these institutions were established as hierarchical, top‐down structures that prioritized sole expertise to dictate success. Today, museums are searching for ways to become more responsive, collaborative, and multivocal institutions that value community voices and expertise. A growing variety of museum professionals ask how to better reflect and integrate local communities within their museums. We share reflections, insights, and lessons learned from a multi‐year case study at the Tucson Museum of Art and Historic Block (TMA), which focuses on redefining curatorial leadership as community‐based and collaborative to expand approaches to exhibition development and interpretation. The authors of this article highlight how network governance/collaborative leadership can be applied to curatorial practice to develop exhibitions rooted in collaborative stewardship, multivocality, and community‐based approaches. Here, leadership is defined as a way in which a museum influences its communities and vice versa. In addition, we discuss strategies for building multi‐directional and collaborative initiatives to shape a more equitable and inclusive museum.
... 72). Kinsley (2016) writes about increased attention to inclusion within museums and uses the work of Nancy Fraser to argue that increasing inclusion is a "matter of social justice." Inclusion, in this article, appears to primarily refer to people of colour and people of low socio-economic backgrounds. ...
Disability, mad and d/Deaf arts are motivated to transform the arts sector and beyond in ways that foreground differing embodiments. But how do we know if such arts-based interventions are actually disrupting conventional ways of experiencing and consuming art? This article presents three themes from a critical literature review relevant to curating and creating artwork meant to spur social change related to non-normative bodies. We highlight examples that push beyond standard survey measurement techniques, such as talk-back walls and guided tours by people with lived experiences. We also explore the myriad affective outcomes of art and how we might measure emotional reactions, recognizing that disability itself is imbricated in structures of feeling. We argue that such efforts must integrate concepts of access from the field of critical disability studies. Ultimately, tools for measuring audience response to politicized art must contribute to challenging and transforming these structures.
... Education, as already seen, is closely linked to the world of the museum and has as its main objective to attend to the specific needs of those who need it. A museum would not be educational if it did not include teaching means or methodologies to give the same opportunities to all its audiences (Kinsley 2016). ...
... As organizations that house collections of objects for inspection, study, and enjoyment [4] traditionally museums have invested in delivering value by individualizing relations and optimizing the experience irrespective of the customer [5]. However, their modern-day recognition as organizations that also carry out social work [6] has led them to focus on invisible groups such as people with disabilities [7]. At the organizational level, inclusive management improves as consumers are better understood. ...
In the field of cultural tourism, museums have been pioneers in focusing on visitors with disabilities. They have used inclusive orientation to offer the kind of memorable and satisfying experiences that are so beneficial to a group at constant risk of social exclusion. Their task is made more difficult, however, by visitors’ perception of barriers to inclusion, and identification therefore becomes a priority at the strategic level. Based on this idea, the present study analyzes experiences from two tours of the CosmoCaixa Barcelona museum by 32 people with disabilities (PwD). The use of ethnographic techniques and post-experience interviews shows how, despite the legal framework in relation to people with disabilities, hospitality managers find it difficult to put this framework into practice and cater to the needs of this segment of the population. Two factors become particularly clear: the difficulties experienced by museum staff in identifying people with disability, and museum managers’ lack of training and knowledge of the wants and needs of people with disabilities. Academic and strategic recommendations for museum managers are provided at the end of the article.
The Inclusuem is a collaborative project established in 2012 with international reach and global impact. The three co-directors, Aletheia Whitman, Dr. Rose Paquet, and Dr. Porchia Moore share a mission to “advance new ways of being a museum through dialogue, community building, and collaborative practice related to inclusive practice in museums.” We have provided a platform for over a decade which prompts arts and cultural heritage professionals to push the bounds of museum work to be as expansive and inclusive as possible while enacting structural change. In this piece, we focus on museums as sites where the humanities are made public. Our manifesto proposes a vision for the public humanities in a changing political landscape and will introduce new perspectives for both an emerging museum and an emergent new understanding for the public humanities within museums faced with an antagonistic intellectual and cultural ecosystem.
This chapter is about some of the sites and scenes where members of the public are exposed to (and engage in) vaccination discourse. To preview, after a brief introduction, we begin with messaging models of communication, followed by the move from messaging to engagement. Next, case examples of public engagement with vaccines are introduced, from pandemic influenza preparedness in the U.S., to polio eradication initiatives in India, and then to COVID-19 public engagement events in England. Situations where publics engage with in vaccine discourse are noted, including online, in churches and museums. Then, there’s a section about communication and public participation, seen as either idealist or cynical. The conclusion lists themes that emerged including how hypodermic metaphors delimit conceptions of dialogue, and how influential communication process models are nonchalant about truth and falsity. The implications for vaccine misinformation leads to coining a neologism, “the layisphere,” of unqualified opinions online. Another theme is information-deficit models such as health and scientific literacy. Scholarship critical of deficit models advances the idea of public engagement as offering a more interactive alternative. Websites, online videos, opinion polls, faith-based settings, and science centers are viewed as sites where the non-specialist public engage in vaccination communication. Questions of ecological validity arise when public engagement is initiated from without by engagement experts seeking to control outcomes. This editorial survey of vaccines and the public uses global examples and covers an eclectic variety of reporting and scholarship [224 words].
La notion d’inclusion s’est progressivement imposée dans le domaine muséal depuis ces dernières décennies. Les actions se revendiquant inclusives se multiplient, notamment celles portées par les services en charge des publics qui périodiquement réinterrogent le sens de leurs missions. Que signifie pour un musée être inclusif ? Les activités dites inclusives sont-elles devenues une nécessité pour réduire l’écart et le sentiment d’exclusion que les musées peuvent encore susciter auprès de certains publics ? L’inclusion contribue-t-elle à la construction d’une société durable où la participation citoyenne et la résilience sont au cœur de son développement ? Depuis quatre ans, le Groupe d’Intérêt Spécial (GIS) « Accessibilité universelle, le musée inclusif » d’ICOM CECA participe à une dynamique de questionnement international. Il crée un espace de sensibilisation, de discussion, et même d’action, pour les équipes de musée. Cet article présente son travail et le cheminement de ce groupe, ainsi que les défis et opportunités qui émergent du dialogue avec des acteurs de divers contextes muséaux à l’échelle mondiale.
Museums can provide valuable benefits for children, but children from low socioeconomic (SES) backgrounds are less likely to have exposure to such institutions. We draw on interviews with 52 low‐SES parents to explore how perceptions of museums influence whether parents would consider bringing their children there. Respondents express a clear preference for enriching activities for their children. However, our findings reveal a tension between this general desire and parents' impressions of what museums are and how their children will experience them. We illustrate how limited familiarity with museums produces a circumscribed view of the range of experiences available at different kinds of museums and influences parents' perceptions of their child‐appropriateness, thus demonstrating the role of class‐based cultural knowledge in shaping the choices parents make about out‐of‐school activities. Our findings complicate the binary narrative that attributes parental investments to either preferences or resources and highlights how cultural knowledge about such activities may contribute to social inequality. The study also offers insights for cultural institutions that wish to attract a more socioeconomically diverse base of visitors.
The research problems addressed in this article pertain to the limited understanding and insufficient availability of digital storytelling guidelines for elderly and physically impaired individuals in museum presentations. The objective of this review is to explore digital storytelling guidelines along with the latest technology in museums catering to older adults and those with mobility impairments. This literature review included databases such as Scopus, ScienceDirect, and Google Scholar, covering the period from 2000 to 2023. Researchers comprehensively examined and employed content analysis to categorize all papers into three primary themes: (1) inclusive design for museum presentations; (2) trends in technology for digital storytelling in museum presentations; (3) guidelines for digital storytelling in museum presentations. This review article could enhance understanding and promote diversity, accessibility, and motivation among two specific groups of museum visitors, both onsite and online.
Population aging has increased the demand for activities for older people, and museums are well positioned to respond to this demand. Getting to know about older people’s experiences in museums, interests and motivations will allow building more assertive museographic relationship propositions for the potential public of older people, that is, visitors and non-visitors. The objective of this article was to get to know older people who visit museums, regarding their sociodemographic and motivational characteristics, previous and current experiences in museums, as well as participation perceptions and emotions in the museum experience. The questionnaire was applied in 24 Brazilian museums to 1,387 visitors. Descriptive statistical analysis found that most of the sample is composed of women with higher education than high school and quite diverse in terms of housing arrangement and income. The interviewees go with their families or in social groups. The main interests and experiences sought within the museums are the objects, in addition to learning new things, walking around and socializing with other people. Joy, satisfaction, and curiosities are the most felt emotions. More than half of the older people believe they can contribute to museums, sharing memories and teaching things they know how to do. Around 90% of the sample stated that they were not people with disabilities, and stated that they did not miss any accessibility resource. The museums have the potential to work with all levels of autonomy of older people, as long as they become age friendly environments for all ages. The data are consistent with the literature presented in a produced scoping review.
KEYWORDS:
Aging; Gerontology; Museology; Older adults; Brazil
This commentary paper aims to pro-mote the acknowledgment of user experience (UX) research principles in the cultural field. As discussed in the preceding dissertation, The Meaning of Participation: Detecting the space for inclusive strategies in the Finnish and German museum context (2022), efforts to get to know one’s audience (or users) should not be ignored. What is the meaning of UX research, why should it be used sustainably, and how can it be ben-eficial? This paper aims to answer these questions by explaining and unfolding the reasons for conducting such research and proposing it to the cultural audience development work.
The Museum of London ‘Diversity Matters Programme’ was launched in 2018 and closed in 2021. The programme encouraged London’s small non-national museums to embrace the Arts Council England’s directions to stimulate participation across socio-economic barriers such as the Equality Act (2010) and the Equality Duty (2011) recommended. However, the project results indicate a top-down approach to the involvement of minorities that seems to clash with the idea of inclusiveness itself. The local museums aimed to establish a bottom-up local history experience where visitors were content creators. These two opposite perspectives share the same scope but use different methods to achieve inclusion. By discussing survey data, the article investigates the Diversity Matters Programme as realised by Redbridge Museum, London, revealing competing and conflicting power relations that underpin the engineering of diversity and inclusion.
Museums are becoming aware of their role as facilitators of social inclusion processes. Recently the paradigm of the participatory museum has been spreading; it envisages the involvement of source communities as co-protagonists in the production of value: they thus become agents of intercultural dialogue. New technologies offer tools both for user profiling, to improve visitor experiences and educational activities, and for practices of re-appropriation of the narrative. Nevertheless, it is necessary to investigate to what extent innovative ways of heritage fruition and education centered on practices of co-design within the museum context, characterised by strong use of new technologies, can implement social inclusion and well-being of marginalised communities and the development of digital skills (and, therefore, critical thinking) fruitful to developing active citizenship according to the lifelong learning paradigm. The purpose of this paper is to illustrate the theoretical framework and the methodological premises for the development of a new paradigm of fruition of the South-Asian art collections in Italy, centered on the use of new technologies and through the involvement of the local source communities.
The literature in nonprofit management can help sharpen museum visitors’ understanding of issues around governance, specifically by reconciling management practices with participation and inclusion. Participation in the art museum is a complex issue that includes community involvement in educational programs, content creation, and artistic practices. In this chapter, we argue that participation needs to also include the involvement of the public in the decision-making process of the institution. We develop our argument by providing an overview of how the literature has articulated the connection between museums and participation, describing how museums have been impacted by managerialization and explaining the role of nonprofit governance. We highlight how the literature in nonprofit management has presented strategies to broaden participation by aiming at a more inclusive governance. Recent advances in board recruitment, board training, board retention, and programming may reshape the relationships among the museum staff, board, and community, including traditionally underserved groups. The explanation of these changes is a way to show visitors how they can interact with the museum and become active agents of its mission.
The aim of this paper is to explore how the concept of inclusion is tackled in the field of museum education. Forty-one empirical articles written in four languages are examined, and the conceptual bases of different types of inclusive museum programs in those articles are identified and analysed. Results show that available research about inclusion in museum education can be classified in four categories: learning, community engagement, training/internship, and health/therapy. The category of learning refers to museum programs in which visitors learn different skills. Community engagement includes programs in which the objective is to invite and engage diverse specific groups of visitors in museum spaces and activities. Training/internship focuses on university training, internships, and museum personnel training. Health/therapy includes articles analysing programs directed to people with dementia or Alzheimer's disease.
Museums have long played an important role in the support of learning, yet less is known about the role of museums in supporting preservice teacher learning in the field of literacy education. In this qualitative study, the authors’ report on how a partnership with a local art museum, as a space of hybridity, extended preservice teacher’s learning about multimodality and social semiotics in relation to preservice teachers’ content areas. Drawing upon interviews with preservice teachers, their written reflections, curricular planning in the form of lesson and unit plans, and field notes, we found that multiple visits to the museum supported expanded notions of literacy and raised awareness about multimodality and social semiotics as they related to disciplinary literacy. We offer recommendations for how teacher-educators can leverage local resources, like museums, as partners in helping teachers prepare their students to engage in multimodal work within their disciplines.
This research examines how museums and heritage sites can embrace a social justice approach to tackle inequalities and how they can empower disadvantaged groups to take an equal benefit from cultural resources. This Element argues that heritage institutions can use their collections of material culture more effectively to respond to social issues, and examines how they can promote equal access to resources for all people, regardless of their backgrounds. This research examines heritage and museum practices, ranging from critical and democratic approaches to authoritarian practices to expose the pitfalls and potentials therein. By analysing case studies, examining institutions' current efforts and suggesting opportunities for further development with regard to social justice, this Element argues that heritage sites and museums have great potential to tackle social issues and to create a platform for the equal redistribution of cultural resources, the recognition of diversities and the representation of diverse voices.
How are children remembered in public memory? Within most history museums, children are superficially represented in well-worn, overly simplistic tropes overwritten by adult nostalgia, romanticism, and sentimentalism. Rarely are the details of their lives—not to mention their ideas or perspectives—engaged in a substantive and nuanced way. This representation is especially true for racialized children and those from other historically marginalized groups. Children are often presented as examples of a generic type (“ten-year-old boy”), and overwhelmingly as historical victims. But curating traces of children’s material and immaterial culture can offer insight into young people’s understandings of cultural, political, and social matters—unique and valuable perspectives that deserve closer attention. This article explores the dominant narratives used to represent children as historical actors in the recently revamped Canadian History Hall at the Canadian Museum of History. Focusing on the possibilities and challenges of presenting children’s perspectives, experiences, and voices, we take the new Canadian History Hall as a case study, and analyze both the narrative form and content of the many representations of children and childhood found in its three galleries.
This article presents a study that analyzes the visitor experience by using location data collected through Bluetooth Low-Energy (BLE) beacons. A visual analysis of the visitors’ behavior and interactions with the artworks at the Ateneo Art Gallery, the first museum of modern art in the Philippines, was conducted. The Immediate, Near, Far (INF) framework was built on top of earlier studies to provide a finer approximation of the visitors’ location in an enclosed space. It was used to operationalize the different metrics used to characterize visitors’ behaviors and such behaviors vis-á-vis tracked museum areas such as Holding Power and Attraction Power. Two additional metrics were introduced—the Re-Attraction Power and Nearness. This work strives to contribute to research on museum visitorship particularly within a developing world context.
Diversity, Equity, Access and Inclusion (DEAI) work in museums is multifaceted, but typically approached from the perspective of external audiences and outcomes rather than a change in internal organizational culture. This article discusses findings from a research study examining what happened in five US science museums that were making a concerted, officially recognized effort towards internal change, and explores what those findings reveal about field-wide barriers to appreciable systemic change along with the impacts of the current status quo on marginalized staff. This study focused specifically on science museums in the US, but we believe findings are also applicable to the broader field of informal learning to activate museum leadership in all disciplines to engage in systemic internal DEAI change by confronting tensions between mission and equity, and tackling hard issues by accepting the risk of discomfort rather than diverting emotional work to marginalized staff in a bottom–up approach to change.
Анотація. Починаючи із кінця XVIII – початку ХІХ ст., відбувалося поступове переосмислення соціальної ролі музеїв у суспільстві, якому вони служать. Якщо на початках домінувала освітня функція, мета якої допомагати державі у вихованні громадянина, то згодом на перші ролі почала виходити місія музею як «інституту соціальної пам՚яті». Перелом у соціальній місії музею розпочався із 70-х рр. ХХ ст. Музей мав «вийти» із власної зони комфорту і активно долучитися до соціальних проблем громади, якій він мав служити і з якою комунікувати передовсім. Музеї мали б поєднювати теорію та практику, знання і навики з метою окреслення значущості певного регіону і його спадщини у контексті подальшого розвитку громади, відводячи в цій роботі членам громади активну роль. Наприкінці 1990 – початку 2000-х рр. поширюються креативні ідеї нової соціальної місії музеїв, де останні зобов՚язані ставати активними учасниками важливих соціальних змін й проєктів (із подолання, наприклад, гендерних стереотипів) у контексті так званої «соціальної інклюзії». Методологічною основою статті є принципи історизму, об՚єктивності та критичного підходу. Наукова новизна. Комплексно проаналізовано ключові етапи еволюції соціальної ролі музеїв від кінця XVIII до початку ХХІ ст. Висновки. Отже, розуміння соціальної місії музеїв впродовж XVІІІ – початку ХХІ ст. пройшло тривалий і складний процес переосмислення. Від домінування освітньої функції музею, зосередженої на вихованні громадянина, до активної комунікації із громадами, які ставали повноправними партнерами музеїв.
The promotion of quality is a critical aspect to consider in the re-examination of science communication. This problem is analysed in the research carried out by the QUEST project, as featured in this paper. Engaging key stakeholders in a codesign process — through interviews, focus groups, workshops and surveys — the research identified barriers to quality science communication and on the basis of these, proposes a series of tools and supporting material that can serve as incentives toward quality science communication for different stakeholders across the fields of journalism, social media, and museum communication. And it highlights in particular the significance of training in order to promote professionalism amongst communicators.
Museums have been considering their colonial histories and questions of how to shed oppressive legacies rooted in the structures and collections of most major institutions. This essay examines museum hegemony through a social justice lens by incorporating the writings of political
theorist Frantz Fanon. Incorporating historic museum case studies provides evidence as to a lack of progress in the field, yet Fanon’s theories regarding violence and decolonizing offer a metaphoric path to guide inclusive museums of the future.
Museums have been considering their colonial histories and questions of how to shed oppressive legacies rooted in the structures and collections of most major institutions. This essay examines museum hegemony through a social justice lens by incorporating the writings of political theorist Frantz Fanon. Incorporating historic museum case studies provides evidence as to a lack of progress in the field, yet Fanon’s theories regarding violence and decolonizing offer a metaphoric path to guide inclusive museums of the future.
During the last decade, changes in society have triggered a series of new strategic activities undertook by museums. They transitioned to an increased and more consistent presence in the digital space, as well as they began to participate in conversations about recent concerns that currently affect communities. This paper aims to investigate the perception of the general public regarding museums in terms of activism, considering several dimensions-minorities, migration, global warming, education, and social inclusion. It offers a broader vision of how museums in Romania are counterparts.
This paper explores how people from low-income, minority ethnic groups perceive and experience exclusion from informal science education (ISE) institutions, such as museums and science centers. Drawing on qualitative data from four focus groups, 32 interviews, four accompanied visits to ISE institutions, and field notes, this paper presents an analysis of exclusion from science learning opportunities during visits alongside participants’ attitudes, expectations, and conclusions about participation in ISE. Participants came from four community groups in central London: a Sierra Leonean group (n = 21), a Latin American group (n = 18), a Somali group (n = 6), and an Asian group (n = 13). Using a theoretical framework based on the work of Bourdieu, the analysis suggests ISE practices were grounded in expectations about visitors’ scientific knowledge, language skills, and finances in ways that were problematic for participants and excluded them from science learning opportunities. It is argued that ISE practices reinforced participants preexisting sense that museums and science centers were “not for us.” The paper concludes with a discussion of the findings in relation to previous research on participation in ISE and the potential for developing more inclusive informal science learning opportunities.
Globalization is changing the way we argue about justice. Arguments that used to focus chiefly on the question of what is owed as a matter of justice to community members now turn quickly into disputes about who should count as a member and which is the relevant community. Not only the substance of justice but also the frame is in dispute. The result is a major challenge to our theories of social justice, which have so far failed to develop conceptual resources for reflecting on the question of the frame. The article argues that in order to deal satisfactorily with this problem, the theory of justice must become three-dimensional, incorporating the political dimension of representation, alongside the economic dimension of distribution and the cultural dimension of recognition.
Background: Universities continue to undertake a range of initiatives to combat inequities and build diverse, inclusive campuses. Diversity action plans are a primary means by which U.S. postsecondary institutions articulate their professed commitment to an inclusive and equitable climate for all members of the university and advance strategies to meet the challenges of an increasingly diverse society.
Purpose: To examine, using critical race theory, how discourses of diversity, circulating in educational policies, reflect and produce particular realities for people of color on university campuses.
Data Collection and Analysis: Data were collected from 20 U.S. land-grant universities. Line-by-line analysis, employing inductive and deductive coding strategies, was conducted to identify images of diversity and the problems and solutions related to diversity as represented in 21 diversity action plans generated throughout a 5-year period (1999-2004).
Findings: Analysis reveals four predominant discourses shaping images of people of color: access, disadvantage, marketplace, and democracy. These discourses construct images of people of color as outsiders, at-risk victims, commodities, and change agents. These discourses coalesce to produce realities that situate people of color as outsiders to the institution, at risk before and during participation in education, and dependent on the university for success in higher education. Using critical race theory as an analytic framework, this article aims to enhance understanding about how racial inequality is reproduced through educational policies.
Conclusions: The findings suggest that well-intentioned attempts to create a more inclusive campus may unwittingly reinforce practices that support exclusion and inequity.
In the last two years, the term social inclusion has been widely adopted, though frequently misapplied, within UK museum sector policy and rhetoric. Originally understood by many to be simply a synonym for access or audience development, (concepts that most within the sector are at least familiar, if not entirely comfortable, with), there is now growing recognition that the challenges presented by the inclusion agenda are, in fact, much more significant and the implications more fundamental and far-reaching. A growing body of research into the social role and impact of museums suggests that engagement with the concepts of social inclusion and exclusion will require museums - and the profession and sector as a whole - to radically rethink their purposes and goals and to renegotiate their relationship to, and role within, society. In short, if museums are to become effective agents for social inclusion, a paradigmatic shift in the purpose and role of museums in society, and concomitant changes in working practices, will be required. Though the focus of this paper, the instigation of change, draws upon government policy development and research within the UK context, a consideration of the relevance of the concept of social inclusion to the museum highlights the broader, international relevance of this discussion. (The introduction to the paper)
In the course of the last thirty years, feminist theories of gender have shifted from quasi-Marxist, labor-centered conceptions to putatively “post-Marxist”culture- and identity-based conceptions. Reflecting a broader political move from redistribution to recognition, this shift has been double-edged. On the one hand, it has broadened feminist politics to encompass legitimate issues of representation, identity, and difference. Yet, in the context of an ascendant neoliberalism, feminist struggles for recognition may be serving to less to enrich struggles for redistribution than to displace the latter. I aim to resist that trend. In this essay, I propose an analysis of gender that is broad enough to house the full range of feminist concerns, those central to the old socialist-feminism as well as those rooted in the cultural turn. I also propose a correspondingly broad conception of justice, capable of encompassing both distribution and recognition, and a non-identitarian account of recognition, capable of synergizing with redistribution. I conclude by examining some practical problems that arise when we try to envision institutional reforms that could redress gender maldistribution and gender misrecognition simultaneously.
Current museology presents community engagement as a positive, mutually beneficial way to improve and democratize representation. However, analyzing participation in practice reveals many forms of engagement, each with different advantages and challenges, none of which solve the problems associated with representing complex, multifaceted communities. Despite the positive assumptions, engagement has the potential to be both beneficial and detrimental. This chapter argues that while a worthy and honorable pursuit, engagement is limited as to what it can achieve within current museological practice, and engagement does not automatically grant integrity or validity to museum exhibits. © 2019 selection and editorial matter, Sheila Watson, Amy Jane Barnes and Katy Bunning; individual chapters, the contributors.
This book critically examines current workplace diversity management practices and explores a nuanced framework for undertaking, supporting, and implementing policies that equally favor all people. It presents critical perspectives that not only elevate respect for differences but also provide insights into the nature and dynamics of differences in view of an inclusive and truly participative organizational environment.
The book first presents a brief overview of the connotations associated with workplace diversity and its effective management. Next, it focuses on the organizational appropriation of differences through the formation and mediation of various diversity discourses. It demonstrates the particular articulations of these discourses with inequality and oppressive structures that perpetuate structural disadvantage due to existing power disparity between dominant and unprivileged group members. The book then goes on to underscore the need of constructing relational and context-sensitive diversity management frameworks.
Overall, the book outlines that current business cases for diversity focus solely on instrumental goals and tangible outcomes and, as a result, fail to fully capture the complexity as well as the particularity of the diversity phenomenon. The book underlines the necessity for a more inclusive paradigm, implying a progressive problem-shift in the dominant diversity research agenda from a market-driven business-oriented diversity management to one highly valuing, affirming, and respecting otherness.
According to a growing number of reports, conferences, academic papers and popular media sources, more and morepeople are living in an “information society”. Wikipedia, arguably an archetypal result of the informationsociety, defines this term as “a society where the creation, distribution, diffusion, use, integration and manipulation of information is a significant economic, political and cultural activity.” But what does an information society look like? Does it look, behave and respond the same way for everyone? Who is part of the information society and who is not? How does participation vary by gender, ability and literacy? How can information and communications technologies (ICTs) worsen existing inequities and further marginalize disadvantaged groups? As with any society, an information society is composed of individuals and groups occupying a shared territory – a virtual one, in this case – and is characterized by relationships, expectations, institutions and varying levels of influence and participation. This chapter examines two central questions that are closely linked: How can inequities of access to ICTs be redressedand how can access to ICTs potentially facilitate or inhibit social inclusion? It would be foolish to assume that just using ICTs alone could redress inequities that persist within and among these groups. There are myriad factors and complex dependencies underlying if, how and to what extent social exclusion is experienced. Similarly, the ways in which social inclusion can be made possible through the use of ICTs are equally complex, interdependent and non-linear in nature. © 2013 International Development Research Centre. All Right Reserved.
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Informal science education (ISE) is a popular pursuit, with millions of people visiting science museums, science centres, zoos, botanic gardens, aquaria, science festivals and more around the world. Questions remain, however, about how accessible and inclusive ISE practices are. This article reviews research on participation in ISE through the lens of social inclusion and equity and suggests that, as a field of practice, ISE is exclusive, with relatively little empirical or theoretical research on equity compared to ‘formal’ science education. This article contributes to science education scholarship by exploring equity in ISE, bringing together international research on ISE equity issues to examine what an access and equity framework for ISE might entail. It draws on theoretical perspectives from research on social justice, social reproduction and pedagogy to adapt a three-part access framework, focusing in turn on infrastructure access, literacy and community acceptance, to develop an access and equity framework for ISE.
This article provides an overview of changes in the discourse about inclusion as it has evolved from debates about affirmative action to various notions of diversity. The article seeks movement away from ‘colorblind diversity’ and ‘segregated diversity’ toward a ‘critical diversity’ that examines all forms of social inequality, oppression, and stratification that revolve around issues of difference. It lays out concrete strategies for doing so: (1) target goods and resources to excluded people; (2) advocate an expansive notion of diversity, but seek out distributive justice that will serve to assist ‘disprivileged’ groups; (3) shift resources away from privileged groups, especially when invoking the rhetoric of diversity; (4) reconnect diversity to affirmative action and the need to offset historical and ongoing racial and gender discrimination, segregation, and bias; (5) remind people that diversity is consistent with legal compliance; and (6) demonstrate to organizational members that diversity is institutionally beneficial.
This article examines the ways in which recent UK governments and related policy agencies have extended, multiplied and refracted conceptions of the social function of museums. It observes that over the last ten years in particular policy discourses have continuously layered ever greater and ever more diverse expectations onto the museum sector and museum professionals. It is no longer sufficient for museums to work with their collections, nor even for them to focus upon their own problems or shortcomings (e.g. of unequal access) and seek to resolve them. Museums are increasingly being expected to orient their work towards what can be described as social policy objectives, and work with and help 'fix' the problems of individuals, communities and the broader society around them. It is argued that although official policies have always constructed museums as social and ethical instruments, New Labour policy discourses on museums have redefined them as a public service, with social inclusion as one of their central functions. The article brings into question the coherence and feasibility of this partly reconfigured and partly re-imagined museum sector and assesses its implications.
Recent years have seen the emergence of the term ‘social exclusion’ within United Kingdom and European political rhetoric and discourse, increasingly used to refer to the process by which groups in society become disenfranchised and marginalised. Since the election of New Labour in 1997, the United Kingdom has witnessed widespread acceptance of the concept which now appears central to many areas of government policy making. This growing importance is reflected in the government's creation, in December 1997, of the Social Exclusion Unit which adopts a multi-agency approach to tackle the causes and symptoms of exclusion. The debate around social exclusion has flourished in recent years amongst academics and policy makers, particularly within the fields of social policy and economic development, but this level of analysis has not been reflected within the cultural arena. Museums are being asked to assume new roles and develop new ways of working—in general, to clarify and demonstrate their social purpose and more specifically to reinvent themselves as agents of social inclusion. Despite these new demands being placed on museums, there has been little supporting analysis or questioning of the concept of social inclusion and its relevance to the museum sector. What place, if any, should the museum occupy in the rapidly changing landscape of social inclusion policies? To what extent should the concept of social inclusion require a new approach by museums and in what ways can they begin to contribute towards inclusion policies? Fundamentally, in the combating of social exclusion, what, if anything, can be achieved through the agency of museums?This paper seeks to stimulate debate around this subject and begin to suggest a possible framework within which museums and their relationship to social inclusion can be considered. Drawing on the current academic debate, consideration is given to the origin of the concept and the emergence of the term within political and social policy discourse. The paper then seeks to position the museum in relation to contemporary understandings of social inclusion and explores the relevance and implications for the museum sector, drawing on examples of ways in which museums have begun to respond to this new agenda.
This study presents three perspectives on whiteness—interrogating, re-centering, and masking whiteness—that have important implications for power in organizations. Through a textual analysis of diversity management articles, the author illustrates how one of these perspectives, interrogating whiteness, works to name, unmask, and de-center whiteness, bringing to light hidden assumptions about difference. The second perspective, re-centering whiteness, appears progressive because difference is recognized, yet ultimately, whiteness remains center stage, resulting in superficial organizational change. The third perspective, masking whiteness, protects whiteness as an invisible norm, actively upholding white privilege. The author discusses the implications of this examination of whiteness for research and practice.
The commitment of the then Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport to ensuring free entry for all visitors to national museums and galleries by the end of 2001 left many of MORI's clients in the national institutions somewhat uncertain about the future. What impact would ‘going free’ have? Would those who might be described as ‘sociallyexcluded’ be encouraged through the doors? Would the money visitors saved on entrance fees be spent in the shops and restaurants?
The first question was answered in spectacular fashion when, in earlysummer 2002, the Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) announced a 62% increase in ‘visitor numbers’ in the seven months since entry charges were scrapped. While it is known that DCMS tends to use the terms ‘visitors’, ‘people’ and ‘visitor numbers’ to refer to visits per se, as a researcher two questions sprang to mind:
•Did these figures mean there were actually a lot more people visiting museums and galleries, or were the same people visiting more frequently?
•Was the boost in visiting restricted to the national museums and galleries, or were more people visiting museums and galleries generally?
MORI decided to see what more could be discovered about these extra visits by placing four questions about the British public's museum‐going habits on its GB Omnibus study in August 2002.
The results of that survey form the basis of this chapter. They demonstrate that, although the numbers of people visiting museums has increased significantly since 2001, the increase is greatest among those groups who have traditionally always gone to museums and galleries, while the increase among groups who might be described as socially excluded is much lower.
The chapter concludes with a discussion of the implications of MORI's findings for the future of the museums and galleries sector.
Racial capitalism — the process of deriving social and economic value from racial identity — is a longstanding, common, and deeply problematic practice. This Article is the first to identify racial capitalism as a systemic phenomenon and to undertake a close examination of its causes and consequences.The Article focuses on instances of racial capitalism in which white individuals and predominantly white institutions use nonwhite people to acquire social and economic value. Affirmative action doctrine and policies provide much of the impetus for this form of racial capitalism. These doctrines and policies have fueled an intense legal and social preoccupation with the notion of diversity, which encourages white individuals and predominantly white institutions to engage in racial capitalism by deriving value from nonwhite racial identity. An examination of the consequences of racial capitalism is particularly timely given the Supreme Court’s pending decision in Fisher v. University of Texas, a challenge to the affirmative action policy at the University of Texas.Racial capitalism has serious negative consequences both for individuals and for society as a whole. The process of racial capitalism relies upon and reinforces commodification of racial identity, which degrades that identity by reducing it to another thing to be bought and sold. Commodification can also foster racial resentment by causing nonwhite people to feel used or exploited by white people. And the superficial value assigned to nonwhiteness within a system of racial capitalism displaces measures that would lead to meaningful social reform.In an ideal society, racial capitalism would not occur. Given the imperfections of our current society, however, this Article instead proposes a pragmatic approach to dismantling racial capitalism, one that recognizes that progress must occur incrementally. Under such an approach, we would discourage racial capitalism. But if racial capitalism did occur, we would identify it explicitly, call attention to its harms, and impose penalties on those who engage in racial capitalism. Moreover, we should ensure that any transaction involving racial value is structured so as to discourage future racial capitalism. I briefly survey some of the various legal mechanisms that can be deployed to discourage racial capitalism through limited commodification. Ultimately, this approach will allow progress toward a society in which we successfully recognize and respect racial identity without engaging in racial capitalism.This article is currently undergoing editing and revision. Please do not quote or cite without permission.
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