Muséologie sans préfixe: quelques réflexions sur l'épistémologie et de la méthodologie d'une approche intégrée

"Not All Museums" : Memory, politics, and museum activism on the move

“…Relatively recent works on epistemology and methodology in the museum field (e.g. Nomikou, 2015;O'Neill, 2006) indicate that despite the "coming of age" of museology, there still exists a somewhat irreducible divide between museum theory and practice which has been addressed many times in literature, academic conferences, and museological research. This lack of coherent methodological guidelines becomes a token question for both museum practitioners ("We are doing our best amidst funding cuts and accountability exercises, tell us what else we can do?")…”

“…It also worth mentioning that the whole new museology discourse has repeatedly been challenged as "not so new" (e.g., Nomikou, 2015;Starn, 2005), not only from a geographical (other than Anglo-Saxon or Francophone) perspective, but also from a chronological one. The point that Nomikou makes is that when the museology that focuses primarily on museums was labelled as "old", the deficiency was filled by the "ideology and discourse of cultural theory and postmodern critique" (2015, p. 205) and deemed to be focused on society instead.…”

Critical Review of Sustainability Priorities in the Heritage Sector: Evidence from Latvia’s Most Visited Museums

“…Some storylines show culture as the very foundation of successful economic, social and environmental practices to reach sustainability. Although cultural heritage institutions such as museums' potential towards sustainable development goals seems to have been convincingly outlined in literature, nevertheless, there has been no radical shift in museography or museum practice (Ross, 2004;Simon, 2010;Nomikou, 2015) or at least two have progressed at a visibly different pace. Museums have failed in ambition and met the stimulus of new social theories with a surprising degree of resistance (Low, 2014).…”

“…Many voices have called to promote culture as the fourth pillar of sustainable development as a necessary foundation, condition or groundwork through which understandings of social, economic, and environmental sustainability may appear (Soini & Birkeland, 2014; Hawkes, 2001). Although the potential of cultural heritage institutions such as museums towards sustainable development is outlined in relevant literature, there has been no radical shift in museum practice (Ross, 2004;Simon, 2010;Nomikou, 2015).The paper aims to propose the first-ever critical review of sustainable development priorities in Latvia's most popular museums with a view to finding out their strategic priorities and using these findings to identify today's specific thematic development lines relevant to the museum sector within the sustainable development framework and to apply this bottom-up principle to propose potential ways to improve the general goal of Latvia's museum accreditation system -that of promoting sustainable museum practices -with specific pointers and thematic building blocks for the broad umbrella concept of sustainable development.Research objectives include (1) conducting a critical review of relevant literature to identify the role of cultural heritage within the evolution of the sustainable development concept (2) identifying the themes of sustainable development that have been communicated as strategic priorities to stakeholders by the country's nine most visited museums and (3) using research findings to illuminate and pinpoint a specific array of themes pursuant to the general goal of Latvia's museum accreditation system -that of promoting sustainable museum practices -for the system to serve as a more comprehensive and targeted tool for fostering sustainable development in the heritage sector and beyond.Qualitative content analysis has been chosen to analyse museum development strategies and their collection, research, and communication policies, that is, the museum strategic documents to be submitted by the museums seeking to receive state recognition. The study covers Latvia's nine most popular museums, whose joint annual share of visits amounts to 50% of the country's total rate (Latvian Academy of Culture, 2018).The study reveals substantial diversity in how Latvia's most popular museums approach sustainable development goals while also exposing a few significant downsides.…”

“…Many voices have called to promote culture as the fourth pillar of sustainable development as a necessary foundation, condition or groundwork through which understandings of social, economic, and environmental sustainability may appear (Soini & Birkeland, 2014; Hawkes, 2001). Although the potential of cultural heritage institutions such as museums towards sustainable development is outlined in relevant literature, there has been no radical shift in museum practice (Ross, 2004;Simon, 2010;Nomikou, 2015).…”