Thirteenth International Conference on The Inclusive Museum

Abstract

In my dissertation, I examine how the concept of diversity is interpreted and implemented in museums and how those processes affect programmes, audiences, and organizational structures of the museum. The increasing political and societal discourse about the diversification of public institutions raises a number of questions, e.g. what are conditions under which urban cultural institutions open up to underrepresented groups and what are obstacles? In my thesis, I use ethnomethodology in order to reconstruct diversification processes in two museum, one in Leipzig and one in Bristol (England). Whereas in Bristol public funding of cultural institutions requires diversity management strategies and monitoring of for example the diversity of staff, this is not required in Leipzig, which makes the comparison interesting, because a) according to research successful diversification processes require authority and “sanctioning” and b) resources for diversification are more easily provided, when diversification is mandatory. Or is it? Working closely with the engagement teams in both museums helps me to produce thick descriptions of their work, relations, and mind sets, from which I theorize about diversification processes in the two museums.