Galleries, libraries, archives and museums (GLAM)

Galleries, libraries, archives and museums are cultural institutions that organize, curate, recommend, preserve and disseminate information and culture. They are society’s memory institutions. 

The section focuses on cultural institutions and the processes that takes place in and around those institutions. Thus, the section studies cultural mediation, cultural policy, legitimation processes, digital cultural heritage, and participation. We are particularly interested in the relations between cultural institutions and society’s pressing problems such as sustainability and democracy.

 

 

 

 

 

Convergence in GLAM

Galleries, libraries, archives and museums are institutions that have arisen in different contexts and with different rationales. Therefore, they are different. However, today we see that institutions often face the same challenges and act similarly, in surprising as well as in predictable ways. We are interested in this development and explore different explanatory models that can increase understanding of the field today.

Cultural institutions and cultural policy

The relationship between agents in the cultural field (including decision makers, cultural intermediaries / producers and users) is changing in these years. Changing governance paradigms as well as digitalization and media development are changing and challenging the landscape of cultural policy: The distinction between consumers and producers is blurred, cultural heritage is digitized, just as perception of the value of the arts and culture is changing. We are interested in how cultural institutions interact with society and how this interaction changes the role and legitimacy of the institutions in a historical and contemporary context.

Cultural mediation and dissemination

We define cultural mediation and dissemination as the efforts made by public and private actors in order to provide their users with knowledge, experiences or opportunities of expression in relation to art and culture. We are interested in how cultural dissemination has changed from focusing on content to being more dialogue-based and engaging, both digitally (e.g. in connection with open cultural heritage data) and physically. We are also interested in the role of cultural communication in relation to concepts such as education and democracy.

Democracy, activism and sustainability

Cultural institutions have traditionally played a significant role in building and sustaining democratic societies, through strengthening enlightenment and bildung on the basis on neutral dissemination. However, this role is undergoing a transformation and we are interested in the relationship between culture and democracy, activism and post-neutrality in LAMs, and the role of LAM-institutions in supporting cultural, social and ecological sustainability.

 

Culture Sustain

DFF - Explorative Network

The network’s activities is grounded on the constitutive hypothesis that museums’ core tasks have an impact on cultural sustainability and therefore our overall research question is: How can cultural sustainability be used theoretically and methodologically as a cultural political parameter for identifying this impact? According to international research, cultural sustainability adds a fourth dimension to the three traditional dimensions of sustainability (economic, social and environmental). The term is by no means unambiguous but can be understood as the adhesive that binds the other three dimensions together. Not many empirical studies that combine cultural sustainability and museums have been carried out and none at all in Scandinavian museums. Consequently, the aim of this network’s research activities is to promote high quality research that unfolds the Scandinavian perspectives on cultural sustainability based on comparative analysis of selected museums of all categories in Scandinavia.

Contact: Hans Dam Christensen

Post-neutrality in Libraries, archives and museums

VELUX FONDEN core-group programme
Contact: Nanna Kann-Rasmussen

Libraries, archives, and museums (LAMs) in Denmark and the Western world are undergoing a notable transformation from alleged neutral cultural institutions to actively addressing societal issues, a phenomenon this project terms "post-neutrality". We analyze the ongoing transformation from various perspectives, to create a conceptual framework for more productive discussions on cultural institutions. The research explores practices and legitimacy in LAMs, considering their relationships with the public and stakeholders. This project contributes to a nuanced understanding of emerging institutional shifts and legitimacy concerns. It aims to pioneer a conceptual framework integrating critical theories, public administration research, and cultural policy research to comprehensively understand the evolving role of cultural institutions, positing that they are transitioning from static roles to dynamic actors embracing responsibility.

Heritage Practice Communities in a digital world

Research foundation Flanders: Scientific research network

This network, involving diverse disciplines such as critical heritage studies, archaeology, computer science, museology, sociology, digital humanities, and archival studies, aims to explore heritage practice communities (HPCs)in a digitized world. Focusing on specific case studies, it seeks to analyze and conceptualize the heritage practices of communities, groups, and individuals (CGIs) and critically examine institutional methodologies for engaging with them. The research agenda will contribute to disciplinary knowledge in the wider heritage sector, particularly in relation to cultural policy and public participation frameworks, fostering conceptual and methodological progress. Public participation in citizen science is a longstanding practice in both cultural and research institutions, but less understood are informal HPCs detached from institutional interaction. While voluntary associations alongside scholarly research have existed for centuries, recent decades have witnessed significant changes due to the institutionalization of heritage practice and the rise of social media and digital tools. Unlike citizen science, HPCs, like hobby metal detectorists, family history groups, and industrial heritage groups, independently set their research agenda. Understanding HPC dynamics is crucial in heritage, impacting long-term preservation and accessibility.

Contact: Henriette Roued

Libraries, archives, and museums as key pillars of modern European democratic societies?

CEMES Øresund network

This network seeks to examine how public libraries, archives, and museums (LAMs) are addressing contemporary challenges faced by European liberal democracies. In an ideal scenario, these institutions serve as promoters of democracy, offering trustworthy information accessible to all, irrespective of gender, sexuality, ethnicity, race, age, disabilities, political opinion, or faith. However, Europe currently confronts critiques of deliberative democracy, marked by anti-globalist movements, urban-rural polarizations, regional conflicts, and nationalism influenced by populist political philosophies that overlook fundamental democratic norms. We will explore how LAMs are responding to the challenges of technological, political, and social changes. The focus is on understanding their successes and challenges in fulfilling their mission as key pillars of European democratic societies. We aim to analyze how these institutions contribute to democracy, citizen engagement, and public participation across Europe, emphasizing their work and engagement in communities. Reach the network’s homepage.

Contact: Hans Dam Christensen or Nanna Kann-Rasmussen

The future of cultural policy

DFF - Explorative Network

The purpose of The Future of Cultural Policy Network is to raise the fundamental research question: What are the aims of cultural policy today, what rationales and normative justifications underlie them, and what means can be used to achieve the desired goals? To do so, the network brings together Danish cultural policy researchers with special knowledge about cultural management, digital culture, cultural economics, participatory culture, audience studies and cultural evaluation with scholars from the Nordic and Anglo-Saxon countries to develop a strong, interdisciplinary research environment to analyze and discuss cultural policy in Denmark with comparable international cases and with policy makers.

Contact: Nanna Kann-Rasmussen

UPSCALE: Upscaling sustainable collaborative consumption using public libraries

Norwegian Research Council Research project

This project addresses how public libraries can be used as hubs for an upscaling of collaborative consumption contributing to the transformation to a low emission society. This transformation requires major changes in how we organize our societies, also in how and what we consume and produce and include the development of both sustainable environmental, social and economic systems. Collaborative consumption, or what is often termed sharing of goods and services, has increasingly been put forward as one way of ensuring more sustainable consumption with beneficial environmental, social and economic effects. However, sharing initiatives often attract only marginal groups of people or are upscaled in unregulated markets that violate sustainability principles. Hence, there is a need to upscale sharing practices to include more groups and to ensure that the sharing is managed in a sustainable manner.

Contact: Henrik Jochumsen 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

ALMPUB
Funding: Norwegian Research Council (KULMEDIA program)
Project period: 2017-2020
Contact: Henrik Jochumsen and Casper Hvenegaard Rasmussen

Cultural Diplomacy: REACTIK
Funding: Erasmus+
Project period:  2019 - 2021
Contact: Henrik Jochumsen

Danish Library History
Funding: Augustinusfonden and others
Project period: 2019-2020
Contact: Nan Dahlkild

LAMC3 (Libraries, Archives & Museums: Changes, Challenges & Collaboration)
Funding: NOS-HS
Project period: 2019-2020
Contact: Hans Dam Christensen

Our Museum
Funding: Velux Foundation & Nordea Foundation
Project period: 2016-2020
Contact: Hans Dam Christensen

UPSCALE: Upscaling sustainable collaborative consumption using public libraries
Contact: Henrik Jochumsen 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Researchers

Name Title Phone E-mail
Christensen, Hans Dam Professor +4535321325 E-mail
Jochumsen, Henrik Associate Professor - Promotion Programme +4535321312 E-mail
Kann-Rasmussen, Nanna Associate Professor +4535321388 E-mail
Lund, Niels Dichov Associate Professor Emeritus +4540169365 E-mail
Rasmussen, Casper Hvenegaard Associate Professor +4535321369 E-mail
Roued, Henriette Associate Professor +4522214803 E-mail

Contact

Associate professor Nanna Kann-Rasmussen