Breaking out of the museum core: Conservation as participatory ontology and systemic action inquiry

This chapter seeks to better understand what is at stake in museum work by drawing on normative democratic theory in order to clarify the representational logics of museums. It identifies the potential for whole system change that lies in recasting museums’ mission away from representation. The call for museums to reform themselves is prevalent in contemporary policy and practice: for museums to be places for social justice, for human rights, for democracy, for wellbeing. The museum claims are normative in the sense that they are animated by ‘what ought to be’ and when seen through the lens of normative democratic theory, however, the claims clearly propose a theory of legitimacy. ‘Core’ suggests there are an inside and an outside; a centre and periphery; that there is museum staffs and people who are the public/community and that there are things and people. This ontology means that conservation is often seen as the key political challenge for museums.