Series
Volume 3
Museums and Diversity
Museums, the Media and Refugees
Stories of Crisis, Control and Compassion
Katherine Goodnow, Jack Lohman and Philip Marfleet
208 pages, 38 illus., bibliog., index
ISBN 978-1-84545-542-2 $29.95/£21.00 Pb Published (March 2008)
Description
Across countries and time, asylum-seekers and refugees have been represented in a variety of ways. In some representations they appear negatively, as dangers threatening to ‘over-run’ a country or a region with ‘floods’ of incompatible strangers. In others, the same people are portrayed positively, with compassion, and pictured as desperately in need of assistance. How these competing perceptions are received has significant consequences for determining public policy, human rights, international agreements, and the realization of cultural diversity, and so it is imperative to understand how these images are perpetuated. To this end, this volume reflects on museum practice and the contexts, stories, and images of asylum seekers and refugees prevalent in our mass media.
Based on case studies from Australia, New Zealand, and the United Kingdom, the overall findings are illustrative of narratives and images common to museums and the media throughout the world. They aim to challenge political rhetoric and populist media imagery and consider what forms of dissent are likely to be sustained and what narratives ultimately break through and can lead to empathy and positive political change.
Katherine Goodnow is Professor at the Department of Information Science and Media Studies at the University of Bergen, Norway and co-editor of the UNESCO Museums and Diversity Series.
Jack Lohman is Director of the Museum of London, Professor at the Bergen National Academy of the Arts, Chairman of ICOM UK and co-editor of the UNESCO Museums and Diversity Series.
Philip Marfleet is Professor at the Refugee Studies Programme of the University of East London.
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Other Museum and Diversity Titles
Challenge and Transformation · Katherine Goodnow with Jack Lohman and Jatti Brefekamp
Human Remains and Museum Practice · Edited by Jack Lohman and Katherine Goodnow
Scandinavian Museums and Cultural Diversity · edited by Katherine Goodnow and Haci Akman
Subject: Museum Studies Refugee & Migration Studies
Area: Asia-Pacific Europe
Contents
Introduction
Jack Lohman
How do we sing our song in a strange land? Belonging: Voices of London’s Refugees in the Museum of London
Jack Lohman
Forgotten by History: Refugees, Historians and Museums in Britain
Philip Marfleet
Section 1. Traditional Methods and New Moves – Migrant and Refugee Exhibitions in Australia and New Zealand Katherine Goodnow
Section 2. Framing Refugees – Contexts and Narratives in Other Media
Katherine Goodnow
Chapter 1. Introduction and Overview
Chapter 2. Conceptual Proposals and Analytic Steps
Chapter 3. Specifying Contexts – Significant Features
Chapter 4. The Tampa and Initial Framing
Chapter 5. Hardening and Sustaining a Frame
Chapter 6. One Representation Unravelled, Another Sustained
Chapter 7. Dissent – Challenges Focused on Truth and Law
Chapter 8. Point of Change – From Concerns for Individuals to Concerns for Groups
Chapter 9. Change – From Individuals to Groups to Policies
Chapter 10. Extensions – Other Countries, Continuing Questions