Unpacking the complexities, challenges, and nuances of museum community engagement practitioners' narratives on knowledge production in Scotland

Bibliographic Data

ID21309956
AuthorsLinnea Wallen (0000-0001-7850-4098, Division of Psychology, Sociology and Education Queen Margaret University, Edinburgh Musselburgh UK, corresponding author), John R Docherty‐Hughes (Division of Psychology, Sociology and Education Queen Margaret University, Edinburgh Musselburgh UK), Stephen Darling (0000-0001-7462-6311, Division of Psychology, Sociology and Education Queen Margaret University, Edinburgh Musselburgh UK)
Year2024
Volume67
Issue3
Pages683-694
Publication date2024-07-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueCurator The Museum Journal (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0011-3069 • E-ISSN: 2151-6952
PublisherWiley (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1111/cura.12611
OpenAlexW4391485392
LanguageEN
Citations received1
References cited17

This paper explores how community engagement practitioners understand their knowledge production work in facilitating and choreographing dialogical spaces (Freire, 2005) within which “organic intellectuals” (Gramsci, 1971) and “alternative” knowledge emerge. Using a qualitative, phenomenological research strategy, data were generated through semi‐structured interviews with community engagement practitioners in Scotland. Practitioners emphasize the importance of equity in the relationship with project participants in knowledge production. Practitioners' narratives reveal how those relationships are realized and how these inform their own and the museum institutions' practice. We acknowledge that community‐based project participants' expertise is prioritized by practitioners as critical to effective community engagement. We argue for a nuanced conceptualization—and appreciation—of the complexities inherent in museum community engagement practice, which is often absent in museum studies work. This conceptualization is embedded in practitioners' subjective experiences and reflections, as well as structural contexts, which simultaneously enable and constrain meaningful community engagement work

Community engagement · Community of practice · Conceptualization · Dialogical self · Engaged scholarship · Engineering ethics · Equity (law) · Knowledge management · Knowledge production · Narrative · Pedagogy · Political science · Public relations · Qualitative research · Scholarship · Social science · Sociology · Computer Science · Cultural Heritage Management and Preservation · Engineering · Museums and Cultural Heritage · Participatory Visual Research Methods · Psychology · Social Psychology

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Open DOIOpen Access