Why Is This Book Called The Othering Museum?

Museums, as the chosen focus of this book are a helpful example of wider global community development. This chapter offers a discussion on what ‘othering’ is with the author borrowing a definition of ‘othering’ from Taylor, Gross and Turgeon (2018, Becoming a Good Welfare Manager: Paternalistic Oppressive Othering and Neoliberal Boundary Maintenance. Sociological Focus, 51(4), 335–349, 336. https://doi.org/10.1080/00380237.2018.1452516 ) to investigate an Us and Them phenomenon performing in the practice of participation in museums, before discussing how non-selective curation can mitigate this: The process of othering occurs when a more powerful group distinguishes themselves from a group that they define as inferior (Schwalbe et al., 2000; Schwalbe & Mason-Schrock, 1996). Othering takes three forms: defensive, implicit, and oppressive. In the context of museums, ‘three forms of othering’ are considered by reframing ‘defensive’ as performing duties of care, and performances of protection as ‘implicit’ as having been developed and circulated over time and of which operate as oppressive. This ‘othering’ can be seen in the distinctions being made between those who were from the ‘home’ of the UK and those coming into the space as outsiders. Much of this book will consider these binaries in operation as a treatise on the author’s experience as an artist and community theatre maker working in museums.