Museums and climate change discourse: the selected case studies analysis

Abstract

ABSTRACT The objective of the article is to analyse how museums become involved in the climate discourse. To analyse the empirical material, a critical discourse analysis was used to examine the discourse practices implemented by museums in their strategic documents on environmental and climate issues. Results: Despite the museums' take on the challenges of the climate crisis in their strategy documents, the tacit assumption of human/cultural dominion over nature prevails. The analyses reveal the facade nature of the content found in the strategic documents of the selected museums. Despite addressing content related to the climate crisis, there is a lack of proposals for unconventional solutions or groundbreaking projects. Bringing together a range of different types of institutions around the theme of sustainability in the broadest sense puts museums at the centre of a network of civil society institutions with an important leadership role in the face of the challenges of the future. It will be up to the museums themselves to mobilise the other actors towards a viable solution to the problem. A limitation of the research is that it was conducted in large museums that are participating in the aforementioned discourse and on the other hand, there is a lack of the local perspective on environmental issues.