Community engagement Archives

Collections Management as Critical Museum Practice

There is a common misconception that collections management in museums is a set of rote procedures or technical practices that follow universal standards of best practice. This volume recognises collections management as a political, critical and social project, involving considerable intellectual labour that often goes unacknowledged within institutions and in the fields of museum and heritage studies.

Collections Management as Critical Museum Practice brings into focus the knowledges, value systems, ethics and workplace pragmatics that are foundational for this work. Rather than engaging solely with cultural modifications, such as Indigenous care practices, the book presents local knowledge of place and material which is relevant to how collections are managed and cared for worldwide. Through discussion of varied collection types, management activities and professional roles, contributors develop a contextualised reflexive practice for how core collections management standards are conceptualised, negotiated and enacted. Chapters span national museums in Brazil and Uganda to community-led heritage work in Malaysia and Canada; they explore complexities of numbering, digitisation and description alongside the realities of climate change, global pandemics and natural disasters. The book offers a new definition of collections management, travelling from what is done to care for collections, to what is done to care for collections and their users. Rather than ‘use’ being an end goal, it emerges as a starting point to rethink collections work.

Universities and Climate Action

Universities have a pivotal role to play in addressing the climate crisis, not only educating an increasingly large proportion of the global population, but also through scientific breakthroughs, technological innovation and raising public awareness. Higher education is particularly important given the roots of ecological and social breakdown in our models of civilisation, culture and knowledge. Yet its potential has not always been realised, and universities have historically been implicated in the exploitation and destruction of the natural environment and human communities. A transformation is thus needed in higher education, with institutions reorienting their activities towards positive engagement with climate.

Universities and Climate Action presents an original framework for understanding the impact of universities on climate change. It explores the interactions of education, research, services, public debate and campus operations on society and the ecosphere, and the complex interplay of influences on local, national and global levels. It provides in-depth discussions of ways of engaging with climate in teaching and learning and the curriculum, in research agendas, in governance and management of estates, and in engaging with external communities. The theoretical models are contextualised with examples of climate action in universities around the world. This book provides vital tools for analysis and action for researchers and practitioners working with and within the higher education sector.

Heritage Conservation and Social Engagement

Heritage Conservation and Social Engagement explores different kinds of engagement, participation, access, and creative use of resources motivated by the practice of conservation, and offers ethical and practical perspectives from which to approach cultural heritage projects.

The chapters are structured around the themes of engagement and participation, with an emphasis on the value of cross-disciplinary collaborations and the adoption of more encompassing approaches to conservation decision-making. The authors explore the complexities of these collaborations, which are often influenced by the colonial baggage of museums and whose effectiveness vary according to context, objectives, methods and resources available. Given the variable nature of the factors involved, providing evidence for the beneficial impacts of engagement is not always a straightforward task. For a strong body of evidence to be formed, it is essential that conservators continue to create spaces to debate methods that may open new frontiers.

Efforts to promote inclusion and engagement through museum collections and the broader heritage sector are becoming even more socially relevant, as in recent years we have observed a rise in intolerance towards minority groups in traditionally democratic societies. The heritage sector is responding strongly, however, as it has the tools to help fight prejudices that are invariably based on misinformation or manipulation of facts. This book joins these efforts, in the knowledge that nothing can be done without dialogue and engagement.

Critical Dialogues of Urban Governance, Development and Activism

Cities have been sites of some of the most visible manifestations of the evolution of processes of globalization and population expansion, and global cities are at the cutting edge of such changes. Critical Dialogues of Urban Governance, Development and Activism examines changes in governance, property development, urban politics and community activism, in two key global cities: London and Toronto.

The analysis is inherently comparative, but not in the traditional sense – the volume does not seek to deliver a like-for-like comparison. Instead, taking these two cities as empirical cases, the chapters engage in constructive dialogues about the contested and variegated built forms, formal and informal governmental mechanisms and practices, and policy and community-based responses to contemporary urban concerns.

The authors position a critical dialogue on three central issues in contemporary urban studies: governance, real estate and housing, and community activism and engagement. Their less traditional approach to comparative framing seeks to understand London and Toronto from a nuanced perspective, promoting critical reflection on the experiences and evaluative critiques of each urban context, providing insight into each city’s urban trajectory and engaging critically with wider phenomena and influences on the urban governance challenges beyond these two cities.