Bridging the Boundaries between Museum and Heritage Studies

Abstract

The past few decades have seen an emergent and growing interest in the phenomenon of heritage. While 's own definition for museum has long centred on institutions and their existing functions, the version adopted at 's General Conference in Vienna in 2007 has moved towards considering the social function of museums by defining heritage as a core business. While this development is certainly welcome, it raises questions as to how well developed and established the field of museum studies is in relation to the more emergent one of heritage studies. Is the latter gaining dominance as a topic in museum studies and museology, and if so, how, and to what degree? Do museum studies and museology prove limited or redundant when one takes into account the importance of heritage as a specific phenomenon? Do museum studies continue to address relevant topics, and how might the field remain pertinent, or indeed crucial, in its analysis of the ongoing development of relations between humanity and heritage, which occurs largely within museums?This article offers a mediating perspective that envisages how we might bring together these seemingly divergent fields in productive ways. On the one hand, heritage studies present an attractive way to move forward, provided that it draws from knowledge and practices already prevalent in museum studies; unfortunately, this is not always the case. On the other hand, museum studies remains a relevant and necessary field in its own right, since heritage studies do not—nor will they in the future—cover all issues or perspectives relevant to museum work. All current indicators show that the sector is in the midst of a crucial transition period in which existing paradigms are being challenged; but they also point to a promising future wherein museum studies and heritage studies work together in complementary ways. Hence, a mediating approach is and will remain essential. One crucial concept emphasised here among several others is that of heritage literacy, which embraces a participative, inclusive, and multicultural approach to heritage and museums. This article suggests how such salutary outcomes might be reached by pointing towards a case study from the University of Zagreb (Croatia) and examples drawn from its taught programme in Museology and Heritage Management.

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 — 10 citations exist upstream.

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