Community in Heritage Discourse

Abstract

In heritage and museological discourse, community is a pervasive notion, used in relation to professional practice and control of knowledge, public engagement, as well as focus and purpose. This paper examines community as a concept and its use in the cultural sphere, more precisely in the discourse surrounding the museum world since the 1960s. It considers ‘community’ with emphasis on the impact of the ‘New Museology’ which redefined the relation between museums and their ‘communities’, on its use in public policy in Britain and more particularly Scotland since devolution and, more recently, on its connection with activism in museums.