9781444334050

A Companion to Museum Studies captures the multidisciplinary approaches to the study of the development, roles, and significance of museums in contemporary society. It is an indispensable reference for art historians, museum curators, and art and culture lovers. Collects first-rate original essays by leading figures from a range of disciplines and theoretical stances, including anthropology, art history, history, literature, sociology, cultural studies, and museum studies Examines the complexity of the museum from cultural, political, curatorial, historical and representational perspectives Covers traditional subjects, such as space, display, buildings, objects and collecting, and more contemporary challenges such as visiting, commerce, community and experimental exhibition forms

Sharon Macdonald is Professor of Social Anthropology at the University of Manchester. Her books include Theorizing Museums (edited with Gordon Fyfe, Blackwell 1996), Reimagining Culture (1997), The Politics of Display (ed., 1998), Behind the Scenes at the Science Museum (2002), and Exhibition Experiments (edited with Paul Basu, Blackwell 2007).

List of Illustrations
Notes on Contributors
Acknowledgments
Bibliographical Note
Expanding Museum Studies: an Introduction
Perspectives, Disciplines, Concepts
Introduction
Cultural Theory and Museum Studies
Sociology and the Social Aspects of Museums
Art History and Museology: Rendering the Visible Legible
Museums and Anthropologies. Practices and Narratives
Collecting Practices
The Conundrum of Ephemerality: Time, Memory and Museums
Histories, Heritage, Identities
Introduction
The Origins of the Public Museum
World's Fairs and Museums
Making and Remaking National Identities
Museums and Community
Re-staging Histories and Identities
Heritage
Architecture, Space, Media
Introduction
Museum Architecture: a Brief History
Insight versus Entertainment. Untimely Meditations on the Architecture of 20th-Century Art Museums
Civic Seeing: Museums and the Organisation of Vision
Spatial Syntax: the Language of Museum Space
New Media
Visitors, Learning, Interacting: Introduction
Living in a Learning Society: Museums and Free-Choice Learning
Museum Education
Interactivity: Thinking Beyond
Studying Visitors
Globalization, Profession, Practice
Introduction
Globalization: In-Corporating the Museum
Cultural Economics
The Museum Profession
Museum Ethics
Museum Practice: Legal Issues
Non-Western Models of Museums and Curation in Cross-Cultural Perspective
Culture Wars, Transformations, Futures
Introduction
Incivilities in Civil(-ized) Places: "Culture Wars" in Comparative Perspective
Science Museums and the Culture Wars
Postmodern Restructurings
Exposing the Public
The Future of Museums
Index
Table of Contents provided by Publisher. All Rights Reserved.

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A Companion to Museum Studies

A Companion to Museum Studies

1444334050

Summary

Author Biography

Table of Contents

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