Att gallra eller inte gallra? En diskursanalytisk studie om gallring, värdefulla museiföremål och skräp

The aim of this master's thesis is to get a better understanding of how attitudes towards deaccessioning have appeared and possibly changed in the Swedish museum sector in an eight-year time span. During this period a new museum policy has been articulated and, since 2017, Sweden has its first museum law. The study further aims to qualitatively and reflexively, identify, describe, and explain discourses related to deaccessioning and disposal at museums in Sweden. Based on such a goal, a survey and reflection on deaccessioning and disposal have been based on theories of musealization, value creation and rubbish. Through a discourse analytical lens, documents and interviews with museum staff have been analyzed partly by using Michel Foucault’s four method requirements and partly by using theme identification tools. After analyzing the material three discourses were identified: value discourse, responsibility discourse and preservation discourse. The study shows that deaccessioning and disposal can be interpreted as both negative and positive depending on the museum’s orientation and organization. It further suggests that the nature of the collection plays an important role in whether the museum in question looks at deaccessioning as something useful or not. If the collection consists of unique objects with aesthetic, archeological or different types of historical values, or objects that have been donated to the museum from a private donor – there tends to be a more cautious approach towards deaccessioning and disposal. If the objects, on the other hand, are made on a large industrial scale and exists in large quantities, with no personal connection – the attitudes are more optimistic. The study also shows that for some museums there also is a democratic aspect of deaccessioning – the process can be interpreted as a way of making space for stories that previously haven’t been told in the western museum canon. It can also work as a way of making parts of the museum collection more accessible to the public