2025/07/15 by Camille-Mary Sharp · 2 voices
Social Sciences · Arts and Humanities · #Cultural Industries and Urban Development #Art History and Market Analysis
paper · doi:10.1093/acrefore/9780190228613.013.1533
Abstract Studying the political economy of museums is an interdisciplinary endeavor that calls for the bridging of critical museum studies with communication and media studies. A first step toward tracing the power dynamics of museums, including their relations to governmentality, philanthrocapitalism, neoliberalism, and labor, is to understand the colonial nature of the museum and critiques of its universality. In addition, histories of patronage, philanthropy, and corporate sponsorship illuminate ways that museums contribute to and benefit from unregulated accumulations of capital. Since the 1970s, institutional shifts informed by neoliberalization have led to the gradual commercialization of museums, as seen in their mirroring of business practices, including branding and global franchising. In the 21st century, unionizing efforts in American museums also offer an opportunity to examine museums’ historical consideration of workers and to connect the study of cultural work to changing professional perceptions within museum studies.