The Diplomatic Museum: A Latourian Perspective on the Civic Role of Museums

This article offers a Latourian perspective on ICOM’s new definition of a museum. It argues that a thorough understanding of politics as a public practice is needed in order to make the definition practically applicable. The task of the museum will accordingly vary depending on how the meaning of a museum as a “democratising, inclusive and polyphonic” space is explicated. Here a hitherto unchartered aspect of Latour’s political philosophy within museum studies is used to investigate the political nature of museums. It is argued that the new definition calls for museums that are diplomatic institutions open to the public, representing the social and its tangible and intangible heritage with a hope for peace, for the mediation of social tensions.