National Museums as Cultural Constitutions

Aronsson, Peter

doi:10.4324/9781315737133-11

Cited by 4 publications

(6 citation statements)

References 0 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…At a time when national self-image is commonly perceived as changing or challenged, national museums can, as Aronsson (2015) suggests, become foci for public debate concerning the nature of that change, and the role of culture, and the culture sector, in it. The four museums of the NMWC appear to be in the position of national museums, in this sense, not in spite, but because they focus on cultures imagined as foreign to Sweden.…”

Section: Concluding Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The museum thus placed the national community in the world, by imposing meaningful order on the surrounding world, of strangers, thereby solidifying the identity of the national community, and the legitimacy of its claims on the surrounding world. Almost universally, these museums could be understood as manifesting national self-identity, and the ideals with which their organizers wanted the nation to be associated (Anderson 2006;Aronsson 2015;Berger 2015;Grinnell 2010;Loseke 2018).…”

Section: Central Conceptsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…National museums have played this role e.g. during the transition from Communism in Eastern European nations, and in re-imagining nationstates as multicultural, rather than culturally homogeneous states (Apor 2015;Aronsson 2015;Blomgren 2019;Macdonald 2013;Grinnell 2010;Gstraunthaler and Piber 2011). At the same time, many museumsincluding ethnographic museumsare dealing with their own colonial history, a process that has often become intertwined with the corresponding processes in their respective national societies (Bennett 2015;Knell 2018;Plankensteiner 2015).…”

Section: Central Conceptsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Bourdieu 1996), and ascribed societal and political roles (cf. Aronsson 2015;Porciani 2015;Gray 2015).…”

Section: Central Conceptsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…e.g. Aronsson 2015, Gray 2015Knell 2018). Swedish historian Aronsson (2015) has described the role of national museums as constituting a kind of cultural constitution, a way of institutionalizing the history and values central to the self-identity of a polity:…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

See 4 more Smart Citations

World culture, world history, and the roles of a museum: a conceptual study of the Swedish museums of world culture, debates concerning them, and their roles in cultural politics

Harding

2020

International Journal of Cultural Policy

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

The Museum of World Culture opened in 2004, partially in response to the increased immigration of the 1990s. This article analyses the political process leading to the establishment of the museum, and of the government agency that administers it and three other museums. It also analyses one of its permanent exhibitions, and the recent examples of public criticism of the museum, and of the government agency. Using conceptual history and analysis of historical periodization to analyze understandings of culture, history, and the role of museums, I argue that the museum represents a museum-idea focused on current issues, understanding history in terms of flows and encounters, in contrast to a museum-idea focusing on particular cultures and historical contexts and on understanding these as distinctly separate and context-dependent. Debate about the museum has become intertwined with the debate about the history, and nature, of the Swedish nation, making the museum both, a symbol of, and an actor in, the ongoing debate about Swedish national self-identity. The museum can thus be understood as a national museum, in the sense that it institutionalizes a version of national self-identity, and acts as a focus for debates about it.

show abstract

Section: Concluding Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Central Conceptsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Central Conceptsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Bourdieu 1996), and ascribed societal and political roles (cf. Aronsson 2015;Porciani 2015;Gray 2015).…”

Section: Central Conceptsmentioning

confidence: 99%

mentioning

confidence: 99%

See 3 more Smart Citations

World culture, world history, and the roles of a museum: a conceptual study of the Swedish museums of world culture, debates concerning them, and their roles in cultural politics

Harding

2020

International Journal of Cultural Policy

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

National museums and nation-building

Harding

2016

International Journal of Cultural Policy

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

'All this in their ignorance they called civilisation': Analysing the Relationship between Nationalism and the Display of Roman Archaeology in Britain's National Museums

Givens

2024

Internet Archaeol.

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

This article evaluates how nationalist narratives affect the display of Roman artefacts in national museums. The unique nature of national museums as 'cultural constitutions' and arbiters of the 'Authorised Heritage Discourse' is discussed. This article builds upon previous work by demonstrating how nationalist influence affects the display of Roman artefacts, specifically through the use of two case studies: the British Museum in London and the National Museum of Scotland in Edinburgh. Museum displays are assessed for indications of nationalist influence through consideration of the use of space and collection composition as well as textual analysis of gallery signage and artefact descriptions. The two museums' divergent approaches to national narrative are then compared.

show abstract

National Museums as Cultural Constitutions

Cited by 4 publications

References 0 publications

World culture, world history, and the roles of a museum: a conceptual study of the Swedish museums of world culture, debates concerning them, and their roles in cultural politics

World culture, world history, and the roles of a museum: a conceptual study of the Swedish museums of world culture, debates concerning them, and their roles in cultural politics

National museums and nation-building

'All this in their ignorance they called civilisation': Analysing the Relationship between Nationalism and the Display of Roman Archaeology in Britain's National Museums

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About