The Politics of Display
Museums, Science, Culture
Published on 25. December 1997
Book
Paperback/Softback
264 pages
978-0-415-15326-3 (ISBN)
Description
The assumption that museum exhibitions, particularly those concerned with science and technology, are somehow neutral and impartial is today being challenged both in the public arena and in the academy. The Politics of Display brings together studies of contemporary and historical exhibitions and contends that exhibitions are never, and never have been, above politics. Rather, technologies of display and ideas about 'science' and 'objectivity' are mobilized to tell stories of progress, citizenship, racial and national difference. The display of the Enola Gay, the aircraft which dropped the atomic bomb on Hiroshima is a well-known case in point.
The Politics of Display charts the changing relationship between displays and their audience and analyzes the consequent shift in styles of representation towards interactive, multimedia and reflexive modes of display. The Politics of Display brings together an array of international scholars in the disciplines of sociology, anthropology and history. Examples are taken from exhibitions of science, technology and industry, anthropology, geology, natural history and medicine, and locations include the United States of America, Australia, the United Kingdom, France, the Netherlands and Spain.
This book is an excellent contribution to debates about the politics of public culture. It will be of interest to students of sociology, anthropology, cultural studies, museum studies and science studies.
The Politics of Display charts the changing relationship between displays and their audience and analyzes the consequent shift in styles of representation towards interactive, multimedia and reflexive modes of display. The Politics of Display brings together an array of international scholars in the disciplines of sociology, anthropology and history. Examples are taken from exhibitions of science, technology and industry, anthropology, geology, natural history and medicine, and locations include the United States of America, Australia, the United Kingdom, France, the Netherlands and Spain.
This book is an excellent contribution to debates about the politics of public culture. It will be of interest to students of sociology, anthropology, cultural studies, museum studies and science studies.
More details
Series
Language
English
Place of publication
London
United Kingdom
Publishing group
Taylor & Francis Ltd
Target group
College/higher education
Professional and scholarly
Postgraduate
Product notice
Paperback (trade)
Unsewn / adhesive bound
Dimensions
Height: 232 mm
Width: 155 mm
Thickness: 16 mm
Weight
508 gr
ISBN-13
978-0-415-15326-3 (9780415153263)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
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E-Book
10/2010
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E-Book
10/2010
Routledge
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Book
12/1997
Routledge
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Person
Sharon Macdonald is lecturer in Social Anthropology at the University of Sheffield. She is author of Remaining Culture (1997), editor of Inside Identities (1993) and co-editor of Theorizing Museums (1996) and The Sociological Review.
Content
Notes on contributors, List of illustrations, Preface - Sharon Macdonald, 1. Exhibitions of power and powers of exhibitions: an introduction to the politics of display - Sharon Macdonald, Sheffield University, UK, 2. Speaking to the eyes: museums, legibility and the social order - Tony Bennett, Griffith University, Australia, 3. The visibility of difference: nineteenth century French anthropological collections - Nelia Dias, University of Lisbon, Portugal, 4. Reifying race: science and art in 'Races of Mankind' at the Field Museum of Natural History - Tracy Lang Teslow, University of Chicago, USA, 5. Making nature 'real' again: natural history and public rhetorics of science at the Smithsonian - Steven W. Allison-Bunnell, Discovery Online Channel, 6. On interactivity: consumer, citizens and culture - Andrew Barry, Goldsmith's College, London University, UK, 7. Supermarket science? Consumers and 'the public understanding of science' - Sharon Macdonald, 8. Nations on Display: technology and culture in Expo '92 - Penny Harvey, Manchester University, UK, 9. Strangers in paradise: an encounter with fossil man at the Dutch Museum of Natural History - Mary Bouquet, 10. Can science museums take history seriously? - Jim Bennett, Museum of the History of Science, Oxford, 11. 'Birth and Breeding: politics on display at the Wellcome Institute of Medical History - Ken Arnold, Wellcome Trust, 12. Balancing acts: science, Enola Gay and history wars at the Smithsonian - Tom Gieryn, Indiana University, USA, Afterword: From war to debate? - Sharon Macdonald