Research Article
On the Hinge Function of Museum Guards. The Museum in the Field of Tension Between Sovereignty of Interpretation and Audience Orientation
Abstract
The role museum guards play in the mediation between culture and the public sphere has been neglected in the field of museum studies so far. Embedded in the discussion about change museums need to undergo, this article focuses on tensions in the services expected of museum guards from the perspective of social inequality and institutional theory. Firstly, the guards’ role ‘in service’ of museums is explored in light of the implementation of personnel and visitor concepts; secondly, the guards’ positioning in the communication of visitor expectations and ‘in service’ of the audience is analysed. Thirdly, the paradoxical challenges of these multiple ‘servitudes’ in the guards’ daily work routine is systematized. Our insights are based on multi-method case studies and additional observations in numerous museums. They show that the museum guards’ role reveals the conflict between interpretative sovereignty and the rhetoric of participation cultural organizations often make use of.
Keywords
2022 (1)
Arts Practices and Cultural Policies in Conditions of Disaster
Related Articles
Journal of Cultural Management 2017 (2)
Case Study
Das Theaterpublikum
Veränderungen von der Aufklärung bis in die GegenwartYearbook for Culture Management 2012
Research Article
Der ‚Blick hinter die Fassade‘
Ansätze einer Tiefenanalyse von Evaluationen im MuseumssektorJournal of Cultural Management 2016 (2)
Research Article
Transitioning the Museum: Managing Decolonization at the Royal Museum for Central Africa (2000-2020)
Journal of Cultural Management and Cultural Policy
Case Study
Yearbook for Culture Management 2012
Research Article
New Realities. New F(r)ictions. Social Spaces of Action of Art between Encounter and Dialogue
Journal of Cultural Management and Cultural Policy
Research Article
© 2025, Journal of Cultural Management and Cultural Policy
Keywords
- Aesthetics
- Higher Education
- Cultural Diplomacy and Foreign Cultural Policy
- Occupation
- Career and Professional Role
- Audience Development
- Audience Studies and Visitor Studies
- Visitor Motivations
- Business
- Covid Pandemic
- Democracy
- Digitalization
- Diversity
- Third Sector
- Empirical Aesthetics
- Development
- Ethics
- Evaluation
- Field Theory
- Festival
- Film
- Federalism
- Community Arts
- Societal Change
- Ideology
- Staging
- Career
- Communication
- Concert
- Creative Industries
- Creativity
- Crisis
- Culture
- arts organizations, cultural organizations
- Cultural Participation
- Cultural Change
- Fincancing The Arts
- Cultural Promotion Law
- Cultural History
- Cultural Management
- Cultural Economy
- Cultural Organizations
- Art Education
- Cultural Policy
- Cultural Production
- Cultural Sociology
- Art Education
- Cultural Understanding
- Arts Administration
- Cultural Industry
- Cultural Sciences
- Art
- Art Field
- Arts Research
- Artists
- Artistic Research
- Artistic Reputation
- Arts Management
- Arts Organizations
- Art education
- Arts Marketing
- Arts Administration
- Curating
- Leadership
- Literature
- Advocacy
- Management
- Marketing
- Market
- Media
- Methods Development
- Mexico
- Monumentalizing
- Museum
- Music
- Non-Visitor Studies
- Opera
- Orchestra
- Organization
- Political Expression
- Post-truth Politics
- Professional Role
- Audience
- Audience Development
- Law
- Government
- Role
- Socially Engaged Art
- Social Cohesion
- Social Change
- Social Cohesion
- Non-visitor Socio-demographics
- Socioculture
- State
- Symbolic capital
- Dance
- Participatory Justice
- Theatre
- Theatre Governance
- Theory Development
- Tourism
- Transformation
- Survey
- Entrepreneurship
- Urbanism
- Civil Society