Course:LIBR559A/Sandell, R. (1998)

Citation

Sandell, R. (1998). Museums as Agents of Social Inclusion. Museum Management and Curatorship, 17(4), 401-418.

Annotation

Professor Richard Sandell teaches museum studies at the University of Leicester in the UK. His research focuses on museum engagement with society, tackling prejudices, and debates over contemporary human rights. He discusses the problem of social exclusion and how museums need to combat it by changing policy to ensure they do not marginalize groups. Sandell focuses on the political changes occurring in the 80s and 90s in the UK that greatly expanded social exclusion. With government initiative changes, museums felt the impact through reductions in funding. Focus was then placed on economic and quantitative aspects over what the museums were actually providing. Social exclusion occurs when links between an individual and various potential support networks has broken down. These links can be family, friends, community, government services, and institutions. Social exclusion is typically interconnected between facets of social, political, and economic life. Museums can be exclusionary at all of these levels. Through charging high admissions, lacking representation of certain cultures, and even advertisements they can exacerbate the exclusion that individuals and groups feel. Misrepresentation is a high cause of exclusion as well. Since the early 1800s museums have begun to turn from being exclusively as places for people to go to escape the outside world and any undesirable elements, and more towards institutions of education and enlightenment for everyone. Still, exclusion runs high and has remained within the stigma that museums are for social elites. Sandell brings in a fourth element of exclusion that is of particular interest to museums, which is that of cultural exclusion. Through representation, participation, and access cultural exclusion can be fought. The critique I have here, is that a culture could be represented, but still be greatly excluded. With the interconnectedness of all four types of exclusion, by focusing on one, museums can in turn battle all the other types that occur within their walls. There are two main ways to combat exclusion. Direct contact and projects focused on those being excluded. Museums can directly combat all forms of social exclusion, which is a topic that has been widely debated. Sandell frames three types of museums to fight exclusion. One is through cultural inclusion. Another is as an agent of social regeneration improving the quality of life through initiatives that help those excluded in economic, social, political, and cultural arenas. Finally as a vehicle for broad social change, influencing society toward positive social change through education, public debate, and persuasion. Personally, museums need to work to be all three kinds; engaging the community and world around them to bring about change and inclusion.

E. (2017, May 18). Professor Richard Sandell. Retrieved from http://www2.le.ac.uk/departments/museumstudies/AboutUs/people/Prof%20Richard%20Sandell

Areas / Topics / Keywords

Museums, Social Inclusion, Visitor Experience, Cultural Inclusion, Social Change

Kelly Murphy