Reviewing museum studies in the age of the reader

Gail Anderson (ed.), Reinventing the Museum. Historical and Contemporary Perspectives on the Paradigm Shift.Bettina Messias Carbonell (ed.), Museum Studies. An Anthology of Contexts.Donald Preziosi and Claire Farago (eds), Grasping the World. The Idea of the Museum

Doing Diversity in Museums and Heritage

The museum and heritage sector has been shaken by debates over how to address colonialism, migration, Islamophobia, LGBTI+ and multiple other forms of difference. This major multi-researcher ethnography of museums and heritage in Berlin provides new insight into how ›diversity‹ is understood and put into action in museums and heritage. Exploring new initiatives and approaches, the book shows how these work – or do not – in practice. By doing so, it highlights ways forward – for research and action – for the future. The fieldwork locations on which this book is based include the Humboldt Forum, the Museum of Islamic Art, the Museum für Naturkunde, and the Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe, as well as Berlin streets and protests

Accessing audiences: visiting visitor books

Museum visitor books, although held by almost all museums, are rarely used as a research source. This article explores their potential to provide insights and information about audience views, experiences and understandings. To do so, it focuses primarily on visitor books at the Documentation Centre of the former Nazi Party Rally Grounds in Nuremberg, Germany. The article highlights questions about using such books as a research source and to this end it contains discussion of forms of address, visitor conceptions of the nature and role of visitor books and of museums and exhibitions, styles of entries, and ways in which visitors talk about exhibition media and types of display, and make comparisons and links with their own experience. It also includes discussion of some themes more specific to history exhibitions, including different possible ‘temporal orientations’ exhibited by visitors; as well as some more specific to the exhibition of morally and politically difficult topics, and of Nazism in particular

"As the Locusts in Egypt Gathered Crops": Hooked Mat Mania and Cross-Border Shopping in the Early Twentieth Century

The hooked mat, a domestic craft product originating in northeastern Canada and the United States in the mid-1800s, enjoyed a revival in the 1920s that journalists dubbed "hook mat mania." In an expression of antimodernist sentiment, affluent urban Americans acquired handicrafts made by "simple" rural folk, eventually realizing large profits through resale when the mats gained mass popularity. This paper explores the impact of the "mania" on Nova Scotians from a social, cultural, and economic perspective. Collectors, dealers, and handicraft organizers transformed these domestic floorings into consumer commodities, severed from their primary function, social context, and provenance. Ironically, without outside attention, little record would remain of this craft tradition. Furthermore, the consumer impulse allowed rural women to contribute significantly to the family economy during hard times. Résumé La carpette crochetée, produit domestique artisanal apparu dans le nord-est du Canada et des États-Unis au milieu du XXe siècle, a connu dans les années 1920 un regain de popularité que les journalistes ont appelé « folie des tapis au crochet ». Dans leur volonté d'exprimer leur antimodernisme, les citadins américains aisés achetaient des produits artisanaux fabriqués par les gens « simples » de la campagne et ont fait de gros bénéfices en revendant ces tapis quand ils sont devenus populaires. Cet article étudie les répercussions sociales, culturelles et économiques de cette «folie » sur les habitants de la Nouvelle-Ecosse. Collectionneurs, vendeurs et organisateurs d'expositions d'artisanat ont transformé ces couvre-sol d'usage domestique en produits de consommation n'ayant plus rien à voir avec leur fonction première, leur contexte social et leur provenance. Ironiquement, si le public ne s'était pas intéressé à cette tradition artisanale, il resterait peu d'information à son sujet. La demande a en outre permis aux campagnardes de contribuer de façon marquée à l'économie familiale en période difficile

De-growing museum collections for new heritage futures

This article focuses on curators’ frustrations with (what we call) ‘the profusion struggle’. Curators express the difficulty of collecting the material culture of everyday life when faced with vast existing collections. They explain that these were assembled, partly, from anxiety to gather up what was anticipated at risk of being lost. Unlimited accumulation, and keeping everything forever, are being called into question, especially through the disposal debate which has gained in intensity over the past three decades. While often with some reluctance, setting limits by slowing collecting or even reducing collections through targeted letting go, or what is variously called ‘deaccessioning’, ‘disposing’, and ‘refining’ collections, are undertaken to facilitate ongoing collecting, amongst other goals. To respond to curatorial interest in strategies for addressing profusion, we draw on ethnographic fieldwork looking predominantly at social history museums in the United Kingdom, to consider whether ideas borrowed from beyond museums might be of use. We explore the possible implications of economic concepts of ‘de-growth’ – partly by seeing the ways that these ideas are already practiced, but also by examining curators’ own enthusiasms and reservations. To develop more sustainable collecting practices, we argue that ideas of collections ‘growth’ might be usefully reframed

Not so private lives

Not So Private Lives is the first national study to examine same-sex attracted Australians’ preferences for various forms of relationship recognition since the introduction of de facto status for same-sex couples at a federal level. It is also the first major study to investigate preferences for relationship recognition while taking into account the current legal status (in Australia or overseas) of an individual’s same-sex relationship. Findings from the relationship recognition measures of this survey demonstrate that same-sex attracted individuals, like other Australians, differ in the way they prefer their relationships to be formally recognised. However, the results show that the majority of same-sex attracted participants in this survey selected marriage as their personal choice. A federally recognised relationship documented at a registry other than marriage was the second most popular option, and de facto status was the third. The preference for a relationship without any legal status was selected by only 3% of the overall sample. Interestingly, marriage was still the majority choice irrespective of the current legal status of participants’ same-sex relationships (including no legal status). For example, of those currently in a de facto relationship, 55.4% stated they preferred marriage for themselves, 25.6% stated that they preferred a federally recognised relationship other than marriage, 17.7% selected de facto and 1.3% chose no legal status. Participants were also given the opportunity to select which forms of legal relationship recognition they would like to see remain and/or become available in this country for same-sex couples in general. Responses to this measure (which allowed for multiple selections) show that 77.4% would like to see marriage become available as an option, 59.9% would like to see a federally recognised relationship other than marriage be made available and 48% would like to see de facto recognition remain. These numbers indicate that many participants selected multiple options, suggesting that simply having a choice was an important factor. Although the data from this survey indicate that marriage is not for everyone, the majority of same- sex attracted participants in this national survey selected this type of relationship recognition as their personal choice and as a choice to be made available for their fellow same-sex attracted Australians

What not to collect: Post-connoisseurial dystopia and the profusion of things

A key – some might even say the key – curatorial role is to decide what to collect. What, that is, should be preserved for the future? In this chapter, we present ethnographic research with curators of contemporary everyday life. As we show, these curators struggle with a profusion of things, stories and information that could potentially be collected. Moreover, they widely report the struggle to be intensifying. Exploring their perceptions and what these mean in practice in their work, we argue that while neo-liberal and especially austerity politics has an important role in intensifying their sense of anxiety, their experience cannot be reduced to this. On the contrary, their intimation of dystopia is as much a function of other – in some ways utopian – aspirations and politics, as well as of a relativisation of value. These all contribute to transforming the nature of curatorship more widely

Special Low Protein Foods in the UK: An Examination of Their Macronutrient Composition in Comparison to Regular Foods

Special low protein foods (SLPFs) are essential in a low phenylalanine diet for treating phenylketonuria (PKU). With little known about their nutritional composition, all SLPFs on UK prescription were studied (n = 146) and compared to equivalent protein-containing foods (n = 190). SLPF nutritional analysis was obtained from suppliers/manufacturers. Comparable information about regular protein-containing foods was obtained from online UK supermarkets. Similar foods were grouped together, with mean nutritional values calculated for each subgroup (n = 40) and percentage differences determined between SLPFs and regular food subgroups. All SLPF subgroups contained 43−100% less protein than regular foods. Sixty-three percent (n = 25/40) of SLPF subgroups contained less total fat with palm oil (25%, n = 36/146) and hydrogenated vegetable oil (23%, n = 33/146) key fat sources. Sixty-eight percent (n = 27/40) of SLPF subgroups contained more carbohydrate, with 72% (n = 105/146) containing added sugar. Key SLPF starch sources were maize/corn (72%; n = 105/146). Seventy-seven percent (n = 113/146) of SLPFs versus 18% (n = 34/190) of regular foods contained added fibre, predominantly hydrocolloids. Nine percent of SLPFs contained phenylalanine >25 mg/100 g and sources of phenylalanine/protein in their ingredient lists. Stricter nutritional composition regulations for SLPFs are required, identifying maximum upper limits for macronutrients and phenylalanine, and fat and carbohydrate sources that are associated with healthy outcomes