Overview

The assumption that museum exhibitions, particularly those concerned with science and technology, are somehow neutral and apolitical is being challenged both in the academy and in the public arena. The Politics of Display brings together case studies of contemporary and historical exhibitions to argue that exhibitions always carry social and political messages, no matter how much they claim objectivity. Scientific displays are often mobilised to make prescriptive statements about progress, citizenship and racial, national and gendered superiority and difference. The studies in this collection take examples from exhibitions of science, industry, anthropology and medicine from a variety of locations, including the USA, Australia, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands and Spain. They demonstrate that exhibitions are essentially political, whether in high-profile cases, like that of the display of the Enola Gay , the aircraft which dropped the atomic bomb on Hiroshima, to the most local, seemingly neutral exhibition.

Full Product Details

Author:   Sharon Macdonald
Publisher:   Taylor & Francis Ltd
Imprint:   Routledge
Dimensions:   Width: 15.60cm , Height: 2.30cm , Length: 23.40cm
Weight:   0.657kg
ISBN:  

9780415153256

ISBN 10:   0415153255
Pages:   264
Publication Date:   25 December 1997
Audience:   College/higher education ,  Professional and scholarly ,  Tertiary & Higher Education ,  Professional & Vocational
Format:   Hardback
Publisher's Status:   Active
Availability:   In Print  
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Table of Contents

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

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Author Information

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.

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