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Abstract
In contemporary societies where shared values, common meanings, disciplinary and
institutional authority are under question, where debate and divisiveness are p art of everyday
life, museums face ongoing challenges to re -evaluate their roles in a diverse an d deeply
politicised world. In this article I explore the potential roles museums might play around
contentious subjects, in promoting public discourse and social transformation and suggest ways
museums might be reconceptualised as dynamic discursive spa ces. Here I draw on the findings
from the international research project Exhibitions as Contested Sites – the roles of museums in
contemporary society (funded by the Australian Research Council, the Canadian Museums
Association with partners the Universit y of Sydney, the Australian Museum and the Australian
War Memorial).
Furthermore, using historian Dipesh Chakraparty’s pedagogic and performative
democratic models, I argue that the way citizens and knowledge have been conceptualised in the
political sen se has largely determined the way institutions have dealt with contentious subjects.
Rather, I argue institutions might consider re-politicising practice by moving away from an older
pedagogic paradigm, view the public sphere as diverse and non -unifiable, position audiences at
the centre of debates and c reate landscapes of diverse and accessible forms of expert and citizen
knowledges with opportunities for audiences to reclaim cultural territory and play out their
political potential.
And in order to develop a nuanced understanding of institutions as political places and
controversy as a phenomenon, I conceptualise the institutional context as a hierarchical and
complex web of values held by he terogenous actors exhibiting signif icant differences in status,
accountabilities and responsibilities and as spaces shaped by particular interests that intersect
with debates in other arenas.
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