Year: 2020
Type: article
Abstract: The Mapping Museums research team recently compiled a dataset of UK museums. In doing so, we had to decide what counted as a museum. In this paper, we outline our initial approaches for establishing the criteria for selection: using definitions; key characteristics; and self-identification; and describe why they proved inadequate with respect to the heterogeneity of museum practice. We then explain how assemblage theory helped us conceptualise the complex realities of the museum sector and to address the problem of selection, which in turn led to our developing a non-essentialising model of museums and a new account of the UK museum sector.
Source: Museum and Society
Authors: Fiona Candlin, Jamie Larkin
Institutions: Birkbeck, University of London, Chapman University
Language: English
Subfield: Museology
Field: Arts and Humanities
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: diamond
Award: G3748095536
OpenAlex ID: W3039782007