Museums, museology and cultural heritage studies in Sweden 1993–2017. Some experiences and effects

Authors

  • Eva Silvén

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.5617/nm.6405

Keywords:

museums, museology, cultural heritage studies, Sweden, contemporary collecting, difficult heritage

Abstract

In the last twenty-five years, the Swedish museum landscape has
expanded and contains today several thousand museums, from the single local
history museum to the merged governmental central museum, many of them
organized in different networks. During the same period contemporary collecting,
diversity issues and difficult matters became both attractive and urgent topics
for the public cultural history museums. Also, museology and cultural heritage
studies were established at several universities, with professorships as well as
basic educational programmes. As a consequence, the perception of museology
as research done at museums was replaced by research on museums, often with
a critical view of the history of collections and exhibitions. During the last few
years, however, a polarized media debate reveals that there might still be a gap
between the actual, contemporary museum and the more traditional concept of
the museum in (some) people’s minds.

Author Biography

Eva Silvén

PhD., Independent Scholar

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