Southeast Asian Museums : On a Slow Path to Maturity
The museum in the Western sense was formulated in this region during the 18 th century, but because of social, political, and economic situations has not developed consistently. In the West, the definition of museums has gradually changed, moving from the post-museum (Hooper-Greenhill), to contact zone (James Clifford), and civic laboratories (Tony Bennett), each signaling a particular shift in how museums are imagined (Barrett 2011). These define the museum variously as a gathering place, a venue for collaborative action and interaction, and as a part of the community. Recently, there has been more focus and debate on the relationship between museums and the communities they serve. This kind of definition has not been coherently applied to museums in the Southeast Asian context. It is impossible to address the Southeast Asian museum as a whole, because each country in the region has a specific context and these are quasi-incomparable. In the prenation state, museums in this region were introduced and constructed according to the Western concept, whether by the colonial powers or through auto-colonization. From the colonial period to the present, museums in Southeast Asian have only slightly changed in each country according to their economic and socio-political contexts. This means that Southeast Asian Museums: On a Slow Path to Maturity
Museums and the Public Sphere
List of Images vii Introduction 1 1 The Public Sphere 15 2 Historical Discourses of the Museum 45 3 The Museum as Public Space 81 4 Audience, Community, and Public 118 5 The Museum as Public Intellectual 143 Conclusion 164 References 175 Acknowledgments 191 Index 193
Same Same But Different - also in Europe! A New Methodological Approach in Cross-Country Analysis of Communication Structuresapplied to five EU member states
The EU still lacks a truly European public sphere. On this level, there is still a clear lack of integration between individual member states. This means that national public spheres and cultures are still of great importance for European communication and media professionals. Comparative research into the similarities and differences between different nations is therefore valuable for cross-border PR communication activities. This paper lays out the methodological foundation for such research, discussing possible approaches and difficulties associated with comparative research. The author then introduces a potential heuristic framework for comparative analysis: the International Corporate Communication Compass. This framework is applied to five case-study EU countries (Denmark, Germany, France, Poland and the UK), showing the differences and similarities in a range of different contexts that affect public communication in all its forms. The conclusion examines how the results of such studies could be used in order to compare communication identities of different countries. This can potentially help in the development of a European public identity on the long run and in a first step can led towards a better, more adapted communication structure about European citizenship. Ultimately, communication structures within the EU might become more Europeanized than they