Democratising the Museum

Democratising the museum is a collection of articles reflecting upon the problem of how participation, technologically mediated or not, can support the museum in the process of becoming more accessible. The open museum shares power with its visitors while negotiating professionalism and the role of the museum in a modern society. The book looks at the roles and struggles of audiences/visitors and professionals and the role of digital technologies in supporting the participatory museum. While different chapters draw on a variety of empirical examples, the main analytical backbone of the book comes from an extended participatory action research study conducted at the Estonian National Museum. This book aims at both academics and professionals working in the museum field.

Contents: Pille Pruulmann-Vengerfeldt/Pille Runnel: The Challenge of Democratising the Museum - Pille Runnel/Taavi Tatsi/Pille Pruulmann-Vengerfeldt: Who Authors the Nation? The Debate Surrounding the Building of the New Estonian National Museum - Pille Pruulmann-Vengerfeldt/Pille Runnel: When the Museum Becomes the Message for Participating Audiences - Pille Pruulmann-Vengerfeldt/Pille Runnel/Agnes Aljas: A Multi-Method and Multi-Site Interventionist Approach to Studying Audience Participation in Museums - Krista Lepik/Pille Pruulmann-Vengerfeldt: Handicraft Hobbyists in an Ethnographic Museum - Negotiating Expertise and Participation - Linda Lotina: Analysis of Participatory Activities in the Museums in Latvia - Nico Carpentier: Facing the Death of the Author. Cultural Professional's Identity Work and the Fantasies of Control - Taavi Tatsi: Identity Struggles of Museum Professionals: Autonomous Expertise and Audience Participation in Exhibition Production - Taavi Tatsi/Agnes Aljas: Democratising Collections through Audience Participation: Opportunities and Obstacles - Pille Pruulmann-Vengerfeldt/Agnes Aljas: Digital Cultural Heritage - Challenging Museums, Archives and Users - Nico Carpentier: Happily Lost in Virtual Space? - Pille Pruulmann-Vengerfeldt/Pille Runnel: Increasing the Usability of the Museum: Four Studies - Pille Runnel/Krista Lepik/Pille Pruulmann-Vengerfeldt: Visitors, Users, Audiences: Conceptualising People in the Museum.