A new cultural policy developed in Sweden in the 1960’s in order to renew the activities of mseums in a more socially relevant direction. The dissertation examines whether the museums adopted the new policy and to what extent the objectives were achieved. The thesis analyses three main areas: the new cultural policy and the attempts to implement it; activities in selected museums along with different intellectual trends that shaped their activities; and the debate between different “thought collectives” (L. Fleck) regarding museums’ missions and objectives as well as expectations within the museum sector. How did the various “actors” relate to the objectives of the new cultural policy? The thesis confirms the potential of the museums as generators for renewal and innovation in terms of democracy and development of the society. There was a clear shift in attitudes from values associated with the “Cultural heritage museum” towards the in this thesis introduced idea of the “Community museum”. The study shows how museums tried to introduce activities relating to current political and social issues, which supports the principal hypothesis in the study, that the museums became more socially relevant during the investigated period. However, during the 1980s, there could be seen a clear recurrence back to the idea of “Cultural heritage museum”. The movement in opposite directions illustrates the museums’ strong ties to the earlier traditional ”styles of thought” (Fleck) and their role as cultural guardians, which severely restricted their capacity for innovation and new ways of thinking. Nevertheless, the Swedish Exhibition Agency (Riksutställningar) performed a role as a searhead for the new cultural policy, corresponding with the heterodoxy and new style of thinking represented by the “Community museum”. A number of persons dominating the debate within the museum sector had a crucial importance in the shift towards the concept of “Community museums”. A revitalisation of the exhibitions, pedagogy and content was accomplished, often as a result of the Swedish Exhibition Agency’s efforts to develop the medium. During the period 1965–1990 Swedish museum exhibitions moved towards a temporary and more socially oriented content. According to Steven Conn’s principal thesis “Do museums still need objects?” the importance of objects gradually declined during the last century. In line with this development, the new Museum of Work had no objects/collections of its own. Furthermore, the arrival of new technology in the late 1980’s gave preconditions for reshaping knowledge and contributed to new attitudes towards communication. Museums were now seen as centres for social contact and communication. The role of museology as an academic discipline in the reprogramming of the museums towards a more socially oriented approach is another important issue. Museology has been criticized by those who – int the debate – questioned the entire idea of “Community museum”.

La ricerca affronta il tema del crescente spazio che la considerazione del patrimonio culturale immateriale ha acquisito nel panorama mondiale a partire dagli ultimi decenni, in particolare dal 2003, quando l’UNESCO ha stilato la Convenzione per la salvaguardia del patrimonio culturale immateriale. Oltre a ripercorrere le tappe storiche che nel XX secolo hanno condotto a tale risultato, esso traccia un ancora poco esplorato parallelismo - formale e teorico - tra l’evoluzione del concetto di patrimonio immateriale e lo sviluppo delle forme dell’arte contemporanea a partire dal secondo dopoguerra fino ad oggi. Tale tematica interessa anche il museo e una lettura della sua storia più recente mette in luce le conquiste e le difficoltà conseguenti l’accoglienza di manifestazioni immateriali all’interno delle collezioni. Tale aspetto viene avvicinato anche con gli strumenti dell’estetica fenomenologica, che contribuiscono a valutare possibili future azioni museologiche e museografiche nei confronti del patrimonio immateriale, nella direzione di un maggior rispetto della collezione e di un migliore coinvolgimento dei vari pubblici. Il contributo si sofferma altresì ad approfondire alcuni aspetti dell’architettura contemporanea, della didattica museale e dell’utilizzo delle nuove tecnologie in ambito museale valutandone utilizzi positivi o al contrario poco adeguati per una seria e fruttuosa valorizzazione del patrimonio immateriale. / This PhD dissertation deals with intangible cultural heritage and museums. An increasing interest in intangible heritage has been arising in the world in these last years, especially since 2003, when UNESCO drew up the Convention for the Safeguarding of Intangible Cultural Heritage. A detailed historical review shows the steps which brought to this attainment; a formal and theoretical parallelism between intangible heritage and contemporary art is outlined too. A study on the very recent history of museums allows to underline the difficulties museum encounters in collecting intangible heritage. It’s possible to think about new museological solutions thanks to the contribution of aesthetics: the thought of phenomenology helps in finding ways to respect the collection and to involve the publics. The dissertation also deals with the contemporary architecture of museums, with museum education and with the use of new technologies in museums: some uses are bad, others are good and useful for the communication of intangible cultural heritage.