Key Concepts of Museology - ICOM

which museums, a phenomenon set
in a specifi c time, are only one of the
possible manifestations. “Museology
is a self-differentiating, independent
scientifi c discipline the subject of
which is a specifi c attitude of man
to reality expressed objectively in
various museum forms throughout
history, an expression of and a
proportionate part of memory systems.
Museology, by nature a social
science, pertains to the sphere of
mnemonic and documentary scientifi
c disciplines, and contributes to
the understanding of Man within
society” (Stránský, 1980). This particular
approach, freely criticised (the
determination to impose museology
as a science and to cover the whole
fi eld of heritage seemed pretentious
to more than one), but it is nonetheless
fertile with regard to its implications.
Thus the object of museology
is not the museum, since this is a
creation that is relatively recent in
terms of the history of humanity.
Taking this statement as a starting
point, the concept of a “specifi c relation
of man to reality”, sometimes
referred to as museality (Waidacher,
1996), was gradually defi ned. Thus
following in the wake of the Brno
school which prevailed at the time
one could defi ne museology as “A
science studying the specifi c relation
of Man to reality, consisting of the
purposeful and systematic collecting
and conservation of selected inanimate,
material, mobile, and mainly
three-dimensional objects documenting
the development of nature and
society” (Gregorová, 1980). How-
ever, the likening of museology to a
science – even under development
– has slowly been abandoned in so
far as neither its object of study, nor
its methods, truly correspond to the
epistemological criteria of a specifi c
scientifi c approach.
4. The new museology (la nouvelle
muséologie in French, where the
concept originated) widely infl uenced
museology in the 1980s, fi rst
gathering some French theoreticians
and then spreading internationally
from 1984. Referring to a few pioneers
who had published innovative
texts since 1970, this current of
thought emphasised the social role
of museums and its interdisciplinary
character, along with its new styles of
expression and communication. New
museology was particularly interested
in new types of museums, conceived
in contrast to the classical model
in which collections are the centre of
interest. These new museums are ecomuseums,
social museums, scientifi c
and cultural centres, and generally
speaking, most of the new proposals
aimed at using the local heritage
to promote local development. In
English museum literature the term
New Museology appeared at the end
of the 1980s (Virgo, 1989) and is a
critical discourse on the social and
political role of museums – lending
a certain confusion to the spread of
the French term, which is less known
to the English-speaking public.
5. According to a fi fth meaning
of the term, which we favour here
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