Museology without a Prefix: Some Thoughts on the Epistemology and Methodology of an Integrated Approach

Abstract

This paper advocates the integrity of museology as a field of study that encompasses all aspects of the museal landscape. Such potential for integrity is based on a far-reaching, yet solid body of research questions, methods and knowledge domains, rather than piecemeal or loosely connected post-modern approaches to the field. A conceptualisation of museology ‘without a prefix’ promotes an integrated approach and purpose rather than prescriptive frameworks, and operates beyond common museological divides like objects vs. people, academics vs. practitioners, ‘old’ vs. ‘new’. The integrity of museology is (or should be) largely maintained through the substantiation of theory with empirically grounded arguments. This claim brings forward questions about the epistemology and methodology of an integrated approach. From epistemological perspective, the paper examines the scope of museological knowledge, as well as the degree of expertise developed in various domains. In terms of methodology, it outlines current methods, tools and research practices with particular focus on the rise of ethnographic studies.

Cite this work

No public copy is stored for this record, so only the metadata is cited.

Stored only when both papers are in the corpus — 3 citations exist upstream.

Papers that cite the same references — the relational fallback while embeddings are still backfilling.