| The concept of collecting, conserving and presenting objects in a museum is a typically Western phenomenon, closely related to Enlightenment ideals about the accumulation and distribution of knowledge and Romantic ideals of constructing collective identities. The ?transplantation? of this Western concept to countries that have experienced radical social and political changes during the past fifty years has led to a transformation of the concept of what a museum is and for whom it is intended. It is our expectation that this transformation has been influenced by the emergence of new audiences and of global museum networks. The main hypothesis of the research proposal at hand is that the global spread of the museum in non-Western countries has led to a hybridisation of the museum concept, a development that may also require an adjustment of the approach and theory of Western museums and their history. Whereas the history of the museum in the Western world has been extensively researched, the history of the global spread of this Western institution still remains to be written. The main objective of this research proposal is to develop a coherent view on the development and transformation of the museum in the world as a whole, in particular in the postcolonial era. The central question is to what extent the transformation of the Western museum concept in non-Western countries can be explained from processes of globalisation, in particular the emergence of new audiences and of museum networks. Further, we would like to study the implications of the globalisation of the museum with respect to existing ideas and theories about what a museum is or what it should be, taking into account the perspective of the people running and using these museums in non-Western countries. |
