Block 1.1: Building connectivities through institutions. Inge Zwart (Uppsala University, Sweden): Professional take on participation.

1. /*oem
Connectivities built by institutions
Professional take on participation
Inge Zwart
Knowledge Hub 1 | Hamburg, 14 December 2018

2. 1 Research questions and focus
2 Problems identified in literature
3 Research design

3. Research Questions
How do professionals in memory institutions conceptualize participation?
How do professionals practice participation?
How do memory institutions frame participation?
1

4. Focus
1
Professional Project Institution
Participants

5. so what?

6. Identified problems in literature
Professionals lack skill sets for participatory projects (Kershaw, 2018; White,
2016; Lankes et al., 2015) and struggle with a changing professional identity
(Tatsi, 2011; Carpentier, 2011; Tlili, 2016)
Gaps between intentions and executions (Mygind et al., 2015), it is difficult to
fully institutionalise the participatory approach (Kershaw, 2018), there are
different understandings of what participation means (Huvila, 2015);
participatory projects do not always fulfill their promise or goal (Haskins,
2015)
2

7. Research Design
Comparative case studies - mixed method data retrieval, zoom in on
individual and project, and study context of the institution
Cases - self-proclaimed ‘participatory’ projects, project in process, institutions
in European countries
Qualitative methods – ethnographic: interviews and participant observation,
document analysis and focus group conversations
3

8. Next steps
Case studies
Methodology
Literature review

9. References 1/2
● Adair, Bill, Benjamin Filene, and Laura Koloski, eds. 2011. Letting Go?: Sharing Historical Authority in a User-Generated World. 1 edition.
Philadelphia: Routledge.
● Arnstein, Sherry R. 1969. “A Ladder Of Citizen Participation.” Journal of the American Institute of Planners 35 (4): 216–24.
https://doi.org/10.1080/01944366908977225.
● Bishop, Claire, ed. 2006. Participation. Documents of Contemporary Art. London: Cambridge, Mass: Whitechapel; MIT Press.
● ———. 2012. Artificial Hells: Participatory Art and the Politics of Spectatorship. London: Verso.
● Carpentier, Nico. 2011. “Facing the Death of the Author. Cultural Professional’s Identity Work and the Fantasies of Control.” São Paulo, 23.
● Coghlan, Rachael. 2018. “‘My Voice Counts Because I’m Handsome.’ Democratising the Museum: The Power of Museum Participation.”
International Journal of Heritage Studies 24 (7): 795–809. https://doi.org/10.1080/13527258.2017.1320772.
● Gabriel, Lýsa Westberg, and Thessa Jensen. 2017. “Who Is the Expert in Participatory Culture?” In Participatory Heritage, edited by Henriette
Roued-Cunliffe and Andrea Copeland, 1st ed., 87–96. Facet. https://doi.org/10.29085/9781783301256.010.
● Haskins, Ekaterina V.. 2015. Popular Memories : Commemoration, Participatory Culture, and Democratic Citizenship. Columbia: University of
South Carolina Press. Accessed November 20, 2018. ProQuest Ebook Central.
● Huvila, Isto. 2015. “The Unbearable Lightness of Participating? Revisiting the Discourses of ‘Participation’ in Archival Literature.” Journal of
Documentation 71 (2): 358–86. https://doi.org/10.1108/JD-01-2014-0012.
● Kershaw, Anne, Kerrie Bridson, and Melissa A. Parris. 2018. “Encouraging Writing on the White Walls: Co-Production in Museums and the
Influence of Professional Bodies: Co-Production in Museums and the Influence of Professional Bodies.” Australian Journal of Public
Administration 77 (1): 19–34. https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-8500.12245.
● Lankes, David, Michael Stephens, and Melissa Arjona. 2015. “Participatory and Transformative Engagement in Libraries and Museums: Exploring
and Expanding the Salzburg Curriculum.” Journal of Education for Library and Information Science Online 56 (S1): S61–68.
https://doi.org/10.12783/issn.2328-2967/56/S1/7.
● Lenz Kothe, Elsa. 2016. “Mapping Invitations to Participate: An Investigation in Museum Interpretation.” International Journal of Art & Design
Education 35 (1): 86–106. https://doi.org/10.1111/jade.12041.

10. References 2/2
● Lynch, Bernadette. 2011. Whose Cake Is It Anyway? London: Paul Hamlin Foundation.
● Macdonald, Sharon. 2002. Behind the Scenes at the Science Museum. Oxford: Berg.
● McCall, Vikki, and Clive Gray. 2014. “Museums and the ‘New Museology’: Theory, Practice and Organisational Change.” Museum Management
and Curatorship 29 (1): 19–35. https://doi.org/10.1080/09647775.2013.869852.
● Mygind, Lærke, Anne Kahr Hällman, and Peter Bentsen. 2015. “Bridging Gaps between Intentions and Realities: A Review of Participatory
Exhibition Development in Museums.” Museum Management and Curatorship 30 (2): 117–37. https://doi.org/10.1080/09647775.2015.1022903.
● Simon, Nina. 2010. The Participatory Museum. Santa Cruz, CA: Museum 2.0.
● Smith, Rachel Charlotte, and Ole Sejer Iversen. 2014. “Participatory Heritage Innovation: Designing Dialogic Sites of Engagement.” Digital
Creativity 25 (3): 255–68. https://doi.org/10.1080/14626268.2014.904796.
● Tatsi, Taavi. 2011. “Identity Sturggles of Museum Professionals: Autonomous Expertise and Audience Participation in Exhibition Production.”
Journal of Ethnology and Folkloristics 5 (2): 65-80.
● Tlili, Anwar. 2016. “In Search of Museum Professional Knowledge Base: Mapping the Professional Knowledge Debate onto Museum Work.”
Educational Philosophy and Theory 48 (11): 1100–1122. https://doi.org/10.1080/00131857.2015.1091284.
● White, Helen. 2016. “The Goal Posts Have Moved: The Implications of New Paradigms for Professional Skills in Museums.” Museum International
68 (1–2): 71–80. https://doi.org/10.1111/muse.12092.