Museums, Ethics and Cultural Heritage

Museums, Ethics and Cultural Heritage
Author: ICOM
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 433
Release: 2016-07-07
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 1317197410

This volume provides an unparalleled exploration of ethics and museum practice, considering the controversies and debates which surround key issues such as provenance, ownership, cultural identity, environmental sustainability and social engagement. Using a variety of case studies which reflect the internal realities and daily activities of museums as they address these issues, from exhibition content and museum research to education, accountability and new technologies, Museums, Ethics and Cultural Heritage enables a greater understanding of the role of museums as complex and multifaceted institutions of cultural production, identity-formation and heritage preservation. Benefitting from ICOM’s unique position in the museum world, this collection brings a global range of academics and professionals together to examine museums ethics from multiple perspectives. Providing a more complete picture of the diverse activities now carried out by museums, Museums, Ethics and Cultural Heritage will appeal to practitioners, academics and students alike.

The Ethics of Cultural Heritage

The Ethics of Cultural Heritage
Author: Tracy Ireland
Publisher: Springer
Total Pages: 228
Release: 2014-11-01
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 1493916491

It is widely acknowledged that all archaeological research is embedded within cultural, political and economic contexts, and that all archaeological research falls under the heading ‘heritage’. Most archaeologists now work in museums and other cultural institutions, government agencies, non-government organisations and private sector companies, and this diversity ensures that debates continue to proliferate about what constitutes appropriate professional ethics within these related and relevant contexts. Discussions about the ethics of cultural heritage in the 20th century focused on standards of professionalism, stewardship, responsibilities to stakeholders and on establishing public trust in the authenticity of the outcomes of the heritage process. This volume builds on recent approaches that move away from treating ethics as responsibilities to external domains and to the discipline, and which seek to ensure ethics are integral to all heritage theory, practice and methods. The chapters in this collection chart a departure from the tradition of external heritage ethics towards a broader approach underpinned by the turn to human rights, issues of social justice and the political economy of heritage, conceptualising ethical responsibilities not as pertaining to the past, but to a future-focused domain of social action.

New Directions in Museum Ethics

New Directions in Museum Ethics
Author: Janet Marstine
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 161
Release: 2013-10-31
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 1317967127

This book considers key ethical questions in museum policy and practice, particularly those related to issues of collection and display. What does a collection signify in the twenty-first century museum? How does an engagement with immateriality challenge museums’ concept of ownership, and how does that immateriality translate into the design of exhibitions and museum space? Are museums still about safeguarding objects, and what does safeguarding mean for diverse individuals and communities today? How does the notion of the museum as a performative space challenge our perceptions of the object? The scholarship represented in this volume is a testament to the range and significance of critical inquiry in museum ethics. Together, the chapters resist a legalistic interpretation, bound by codes and common practice, to advance an ethics discourse that is richly theorized, constantly changing and contingent on diverse external factors. Contributors take stock of innovative research to articulate a new museum ethics founded on the moral agency of museums, the concept that museums have both the capacity and the responsibility to create social change. This book is based on a special issue of Museum Management and Curatorship.

ICOM Code of Ethics for Museums

ICOM Code of Ethics for Museums
Author: International Council of Museums
Publisher: Icom
Total Pages: 32
Release: 2006
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN:

Contains minimum standards of professional practice and performance for museums and their staff.

Museums, Ethics and Cultural Heritage

Museums, Ethics and Cultural Heritage
Author: ICOM
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 471
Release: 2016-07-07
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 1317197402

This volume provides an unparalleled exploration of ethics and museum practice, considering the controversies and debates which surround key issues such as provenance, ownership, cultural identity, environmental sustainability and social engagement. Using a variety of case studies which reflect the internal realities and daily activities of museums as they address these issues, from exhibition content and museum research to education, accountability and new technologies, Museums, Ethics and Cultural Heritage enables a greater understanding of the role of museums as complex and multifaceted institutions of cultural production, identity-formation and heritage preservation. Benefitting from ICOM’s unique position in the museum world, this collection brings a global range of academics and professionals together to examine museums ethics from multiple perspectives. Providing a more complete picture of the diverse activities now carried out by museums, Museums, Ethics and Cultural Heritage will appeal to practitioners, academics and students alike.

Museum Ethics

Museum Ethics
Author: Gary Edson
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 310
Release: 2005-09-27
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 1134773951

A number of developments in the museum movement during the last few years have forced museums to give greater attention to ethical issues. Members of a profession are increasingly regarded constituting an ethical community. Every person with such a community must have a sense of personal obligation as well as a responsibilty for others to assure ethical achievement. This volume firmly places notions of ethics in the field of action. Museum Ethics considers the theoretical and practical elements of the philosophy of conduct in relation to critical contemporaty issues and museums. This discussion encompasses the procurement of artifacts, the rights of indigenous peoples, repatriation, the politics of display, the conservation of objects and the role of education, as well as the day-to-day management of a museum. All persons active in museum matters, whether custodian, curator, or trustee have an ethical obligation to the museum profession and the public. This volume will allow the professional and student to work towards a more responsible and responsive museum community.

Code of Ethics for Museums

Code of Ethics for Museums
Author: American Association of Museums
Publisher: American Alliance of Museums
Total Pages: 0
Release: 2000
Genre: Museum curators
ISBN: 9780931201653

"Ethical codes evolve in response to changing conditions, values, and ideas. A professional code of ethics must, therefore, be periodically updated. It must also rest upon widely shared values. Although the operating environment of museums grows more complex each year, the root value for museums, the tie that connects all of us together despite our diversity, is the commitment to serving people, both present and future generations. This value guided the creation of and remains the most fundamental principle in the following Code of Ethics for Museums."--

The Routledge Companion to Museum Ethics

The Routledge Companion to Museum Ethics
Author: Janet Marstine
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 497
Release: 2012-05-23
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 1136715266

Routledge Companion to Museum Ethics is a theoretically informed reconceptualization of museum ethics discourse as a dynamic social practice central to the project of creating change in the museum. Through twenty-seven chapters by an international and interdisciplinary group of academics and practitioners it explores contemporary museum ethics as an opportunity for growth, rather than a burden of compliance. The volume represents diverse strands in museum activity from exhibitions to marketing, as ethics is embedded in all areas of the museum sector. What the contributions share is an understanding of the contingent nature of museum ethics in the twenty-first century—its relations with complex economic, social, political and technological forces and its fluid ever-shifting sensibility. The volume examines contemporary museum ethics through the prism of those disciplines and methods that have shaped it most. It argues for a museum ethics discourse defined by social responsibility, radical transparency and shared guardianship of heritage. And it demonstrates the moral agency of museums: the concept that museum ethics is more than the personal and professional ethics of individuals and concerns the capacity of institutions to generate self-reflective and activist practice.

Education, Values and Ethics in International Heritage

Education, Values and Ethics in International Heritage
Author: Jeanette Atkinson
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 240
Release: 2016-04-29
Genre: Art
ISBN: 1317145755

The changing and evolving relationship between museums and communities, Indigenous, ethnic and marginalized, has been a primary point of discussion in the heritage sector in recent years. Questions of official and unofficial heritage, whose artefacts to collect and exhibit and why, have informed and influenced museum practice. Developing from this, a key issue is whether it is possible to raise awareness of differing cultural perspectives, values and beliefs and incorporate this into the education and training of heritage professionals, with the aim of making 'cultural awareness' an integrated and sustainable core part of future heritage training and practice. This book discusses perceptions of values and ethics, authenticity and significance, and documents the historical, heritage and education context in North America, Scandinavia and the United Kingdom, with a particular emphasis on Aotearoa New Zealand. The author explores whether it is possible to learn respect for differing cultural perspectives through the undertaking of educational programmes, identifies various approaches that could complement the development of students and professionals in the cultural heritage and preservation sectors, and offers a means of actively engaging with cultural and professional values through a Taxonomy for Respecting Heritage and Values.

Cultural Heritage Ethics

Cultural Heritage Ethics
Author: Constantine Sandis
Publisher: Open Book Publishers
Total Pages: 230
Release: 2014-10-13
Genre: Art
ISBN: 1783740671

Theory without practice is empty, practice without theory is blind, to adapt a phrase from Immanuel Kant. The sentiment could not be truer of cultural heritage ethics. This intra-disciplinary book bridges the gap between theory and practice by bringing together a stellar cast of academics, activists, consultants, journalists, lawyers, and museum practitioners, each contributing their own expertise to the wider debate of what cultural heritage means in the twenty-first century. Cultural Heritage Ethics provides cutting-edge arguments built on case studies of cultural heritage and its management in a range of geographical and cultural contexts. Moreover, the volume feels the pulse of the debate on heritage ethics by discussing timely issues such as access, acquisition, archaeological practice, curatorship, education, ethnology, historiography, integrity, legislation, memory, museum management, ownership, preservation, protection, public trust, restitution, human rights, stewardship, and tourism. This volume is neither a textbook nor a manifesto for any particular approach to heritage ethics, but a snapshot of different positions and approaches that will inspire both thought and action. Cultural Heritage Ethics provides invaluable reading for students and teachers of philosophy of archaeology, history and moral philosophy – and for anyone interested in the theory and practice of cultural preservation.