In this thesis, I address the role of museums in contemporary Scotland, with specific reference to Glasgow Museums, the city of Glasgow’s municipal museums service. The empirical research focused on both the policy landscape within which Scottish museums are emplaced, and the activities and practices of museum staff. The research involved interviews with museum professionals, and participant observation within the museums service. The research findings emphasise the complexity of the role that museums play in contemporary society. In the thesis, I attempt to articulate the policy concept of social inclusion insofar as is it articulated within Glasgow Museums. I argue that in recent years Glasgow Museums has attempted to re-orientate its service around social inclusion, and yet the diffuse nature of the concept, coupled with the complexity of the institutional and organisational configurations within which it is implemented, means that many different – and extremely diverse – activities come to be considered part of the social inclusion agenda. The complex set of power relations through which social inclusion is articulated often results in conflict between different museum venues, departments and cohorts of staff. Through an examination of the theory underpinning the concept of social inclusion, and the practices privileged as part of Glasgow Museums’ commitment to social inclusion, I argue that it could usefully be understood as a therapeutic technology. I also suggest that community engagement has become an increasingly important part of socially inclusive practice within Glasgow Museums, yet I contend that community engagement represents a new and largely uncharted territory for many museum professionals. Through an exploration of the planning and execution of a community engagement project – entitled Curious – I argue that community engagement could usefully be thought of as a form of care. As a result, I contend that community engagement requires distinctive skills, and that these skills are often explicitly gendered.

A partir da década de 1960, com o surgimento do novo paradigma da democracia sociocultural, diversas críticas direcionaram-se aos museus e à museologia e deram base para o surgimento de um movimento museológico internacional denominado Nova Museologia, oficializado em 1984 no I Atelier Internacional Ecomuseus/Nova Museologia, realizado em Québec (Canadá). A Nova Museologia enfatizou a vocação social dos museus e propôs diversas renovações teóricas e metodológicas ao campo museológico estabelecido. No Brasil, observamos repercussões desse movimento principalmente a partir da década de 1980, com a redemocratização do país. Paralelamente à renovação de museus já consolidados, surgem novas iniciativas, denominadas majoritariamente ecomuseus e museus comunitários, que objetivam, através de uma curadoria coletiva e da promoção de práticas ativas, populares, participativas, comunitárias e experimentais, a valorização, preservação e difusão dos patrimônios locais (Natural, Cultural, Material e Imaterial), garantir que o museu atue como espaço de representação e promova, a partir da contextualização do patrimônio, a compreensão, o questionamento, a conscientização e a transformação da realidade. O atual projeto de pesquisa teve como objetivos: revisar termos e conceitos ligados à Nova Museologia e a essa nova tipologia de museus em bibliografia pertinente ao tema, relacionando e confrontando autores diversos; realizar um mapeamento dos museus comunitários, ecomuseus e demais iniciativas de memória e patrimônio de base comunitária que se compreendem enquanto museus no contexto brasileiro; elaborar um panorama-síntese para uma melhor compreensão da diversidade dessa tipologia de museus. / Since the 1960\'s, with the emergence of the new paradigm of socio-cultural democracy, several criticisms were directed at Museums and Museology and this process triggered the emergence of an international museological movement called New Museology, made official in 1984 at the I Atelier International Ecomuseums / New Museology, held in Quebec (Canada). The New Museology emphasized the social vocation of museums and proposed several theoretical and methodological renewals to the established museological field. It is possible to observe repercussions of this movement in Brazil mainly from the decade of 1980, with the redemocratization of the country. Parallel to the renovation of already consolidated museums, new museological experiences are emerging, mainly called museums community and ecomuseums, which aim, through collective curation and the promotion of active, popular, participatory, community and experimental practices, the valorization, preservation and diffusion of local Heritage (Natural, Cultural, Material and Immaterial), to ensure that the museum acts as a space for representation and to promote, from the contextualisation of heritage, understanding, questioning, awareness and transformation of reality. The current research project aimed: revise terms and concepts related to New Museology and this new typology of museums in relevant bibliography, relating and confronting diverse authors; to carry out a cartography of community museums, ecomuseums and initiatives of memory and community-based heritage that is understood as a museum in the Brazilian context; elaborate a panorama synthesis for a better understanding of the diversity of this typology of museums.

A partir da década de 1960, com o surgimento do novo paradigma da democracia sociocultural, diversas críticas direcionaram-se aos museus e à museologia e deram base para o surgimento de um movimento museológico internacional denominado Nova Museologia, oficializado em 1984 no I Atelier Internacional Ecomuseus/Nova Museologia, realizado em Québec (Canadá). A Nova Museologia enfatizou a vocação social dos museus e propôs diversas renovações teóricas e metodológicas ao campo museológico estabelecido. No Brasil, observamos repercussões desse movimento principalmente a partir da década de 1980, com a redemocratização do país. Paralelamente à renovação de museus já consolidados, surgem novas iniciativas, denominadas majoritariamente ecomuseus e museus comunitários, que objetivam, através de uma curadoria coletiva e da promoção de práticas ativas, populares, participativas, comunitárias e experimentais, a valorização, preservação e difusão dos patrimônios locais (Natural, Cultural, Material e Imaterial), garantir que o museu atue como espaço de representação e promova, a partir da contextualização do patrimônio, a compreensão, o questionamento, a conscientização e a transformação da realidade. O atual projeto de pesquisa teve como objetivos: revisar termos e conceitos ligados à Nova Museologia e a essa nova tipologia de museus em bibliografia pertinente ao tema, relacionando e confrontando autores diversos; realizar um mapeamento dos museus comunitários, ecomuseus e demais iniciativas de memória e patrimônio de base comunitária que se compreendem enquanto museus no contexto brasileiro; elaborar um panorama-síntese para uma melhor compreensão da diversidade dessa tipologia de museus. / Since the 1960\'s, with the emergence of the new paradigm of socio-cultural democracy, several criticisms were directed at Museums and Museology and this process triggered the emergence of an international museological movement called New Museology, made official in 1984 at the I Atelier International Ecomuseums / New Museology, held in Quebec (Canada). The New Museology emphasized the social vocation of museums and proposed several theoretical and methodological renewals to the established museological field. It is possible to observe repercussions of this movement in Brazil mainly from the decade of 1980, with the redemocratization of the country. Parallel to the renovation of already consolidated museums, new museological experiences are emerging, mainly called museums community and ecomuseums, which aim, through collective curation and the promotion of active, popular, participatory, community and experimental practices, the valorization, preservation and diffusion of local Heritage (Natural, Cultural, Material and Immaterial), to ensure that the museum acts as a space for representation and to promote, from the contextualisation of heritage, understanding, questioning, awareness and transformation of reality. The current research project aimed: revise terms and concepts related to New Museology and this new typology of museums in relevant bibliography, relating and confronting diverse authors; to carry out a cartography of community museums, ecomuseums and initiatives of memory and community-based heritage that is understood as a museum in the Brazilian context; elaborate a panorama synthesis for a better understanding of the diversity of this typology of museums.