A Bit Closer to Humanity : Participation and Empowerment at a Local Museum

This thesis is based on a case study of a local museum that challenges the idea of what a museum constitutes today. The museum elaborates on the idea of considering the visitor as a participant and examines the possibility of contributing to empowerment among the local community. The aim of this thesis is to analyze the museum's external work and its participatory elements in a place characterized by migration and marginalization, and thereby achieve a deeper knowledge of the relationship between the museum and its visitors. The study is conducted through qualitative methods, such as participatory observation and interviews with museum staff and museum visitors, and a quantitative survey among local residents. The thesis' theoretical framework consists of the participatory museum perspective and theoretical concepts such as empowerment, community and place. Using these concepts, the character of the museum's external work and its participatory elements are analyzed regarding the issues of participation, empowerment and the social role of the museum. The analysis also include the site's demographic aspects in relation to the museum and what kind of challenges these imply. In addition, the museum's spatial character and its location is discussed. The result shows that the museum is a participatory museum that experiences the challenges associated with this perspective. The conclusion highlights the importance of clearly determining what kind of participation the work is based on. Furthermore, the result shows that the museum is part of a process whereby the participants are allocated resources, skills, authority and motivation. Thus, the conclusion is that the museum contributes to the empowerment among its visitors. The result also demonstrates several challenges of working in an area characterized by migration and marginalization. These challenges relate to the museum's role as a help centre, a discontinuity among the participants and cultural aspects. The conclusion is that these conditions require the museum to use other methods than the traditional museum, such as formative evaluation, outreach programs, culture specific knowledge and good insight into their communities. This is a two years master's thesis in Museum and Cultural Heritage Studies