Tracing the boundaries of museum practice. Three case studies of Finnish art museums representing climate change between 2006 and 2020

Vulnerability of cross-country skiing to climate change in Finland – An interactive mapping tool

This bibliography surveys work on the art museum from a broad-based anthropological perspective, with the caveat that many of the influential, anthropologically inflected studies of art museums have not been produced within the confines of the discipline of anthropology. As such, this bibliography also draws on scholars working within art history, history, sociology, and museum studies/museology highlighting however the benefits of working within an anthropological framework that filters art museums through a lens that is global, cultural, and comparative, and which places the art museum within societal and cultural contexts. Attending to local contexts and histories not only highlights the social worlds that both produce and are produced by museums but highlights the complex power relations that underpin the museum as a global form. Anthropology’s methodological commitments also demonstrate the insights that can be gained through long-term participatory fieldwork and ethnographic writing. The art museum that emerges from within these references is a globalized site of institutional practices of curation, collection, conservation, education, and display, profoundly implicated within discourses about the public, national identity, and citizenship that also vary according to local histories and cultures. In turn, these texts also show how the museum as an institutional form and set of practices contributes to the making of the very category of art. I start by reviewing some foundational texts that have established a baseline for conceptual framings of the art museum as it emerged as a nation-building civic institution in Europe. This section also underscores a more global history of the art museum, intrinsically bound up with colonial power and knowledge systems. From the start, the art museum has been instrumental within discourses and ideologies of the public, regulated through its role in the formation of canonical taste, and through the civilizing rituals of exhibition visiting and art appreciation, which controlled and contained the bodies of the citizenry through careful and attentive viewing practices. Discourses of taste, of high and fine art, and, later, of accessibility expose the ways in which the art museum stratifies the public along lines of class and other distinctions, and fosters nationalist policies and politics of inclusion and exclusion. The following section explores the ways in which the classification and display of artworks in museums are fundamentally bound up with a global politics, and underpinned by colonial value systems. Understandings of art and artifact, primive and modern, are categories emerging from highly racialized worldviews that have been distilled into display strategies that have been salient to the emergence of the display of modern and contemporary art and are baselines for exhibition-making in many museum contexts. This section, on practices of display, is followed by a section on art museums and marketplaces, highlighting the interdependences of both monetary and social value between these two institutional contexts. The subsequent sections explore some of the ways in which art museums are bound up in discussions of contemporary social theory and practices of research, tracking an ongoing dialogue between contemporary art and anthropology. The final section then explores the multiplicity of social practices inculcated within the art museum, here presented under the rubric of care, extending the practice of conservation into broader social domains of cultural heritage preservation, social and historical justice, reparation, and community relations.

Climate change is a condition characterized by changes in world climate patterns which result in erratic weather phenomena. Climate change occurs due to changes in climate variables, such as air temperature and rainfall, which occur continuously. In this research, film is the subject, film is a mass communication tool that is packaged with characters, plot and messages in it, provides information to the audience through the storyline that is conveyed and has a strong influence on issues that are developing in society, the unit of analysis of this research contains "Semiotic Analysis of Roland Barthes' Representation of Climate Change in the Documentary Film Ano Bulan Balong". The aim of this research is to determine the representation of climate change in the film Ano Bulan Balong based on Roland Barthes' stereotypes. This research uses Roland Barthes' semiotic theory, where the researcher looks for the meaning of Denotation, Connotation and Myth in several scenes in the film Ano Bulan Balong. . The results of research on the documentary film Ano Bulan Balong can be linked to environmental issues, namely climate change. Researchers group and categorize messages to convey meaning in the film Ano Bulan Balong, including; environmental message, Through semiotic analysis, Roland Barthes in this film shows that the problem currently being faced by Sumbawa is unrest triggered by environmental problems which are a factor in climate change, forest lands full of trees are starting to disappear, replaced by corn plants. Critical trees resulting from deforestation will cause extreme natural disasters.

L’article présente les résultats d’une analyse discursive des journaux Le Monde, Le Figaro, O Estado de São Paulo et O Globo au sujet de la représentation du changement climatique. L’hypothèse heuristique fil conducteur de l’étude est que la représentation du phénomène dans les journaux analysés se partage entre idées utopiques et dystopiques. Le cadre théorique trouve ses sources dans des travaux philosophiques ainsi que dans des études littéraires sur l’utopie et la dystopie. L’analyse du discours est basée sur les travaux de Sophie Moirand sur la presse quotidienne nationale française, ainsi que sur le concept de “moment discursif”. Nous observons que la représentation du changement climatique dans les journaux analysés se structure autour de l’idée d’un consensus tant scientifique que politique, de la promotion des initiatives individuelles, ainsi que de la préservation de la nature et de l’usage des technologies comme réponse au problème climatique.

Many of the current environmental problems are cross-national. Perhaps the best example is anthropogenic climate change that is altering climatic conditions and ecosystem services and thus affecting economic, political and social structures of human communities throughout the world (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change [IPCC], 2008; Millennium Ecosystem Assessment [MEA], 2005). The transnational character of many environmental problems is further emphasised by their connections with various other globalization processes. These include, e.g. global trade with long production and consumption chains and the creation of global product brands, advertising, and marketing (Lebel & Lorek, 2008). Global consolidation of media ownership, development of new information and communication technologies detached from place, and the increasing use of English are key trends of the globalization of the media (Hopper, 2007). Climate change has been recognised as a key concern by an overwhelming majority of scientists (Oreskes, 2004) and by a growing amount of policy-makers, businessmen and citizens. However, the public and policy concern over climate change is unevenly distributed between and within countries. One explanation for the country-by-country differences is the variation of quantity and quality of mass media coverage. Media visibility and the framings can vary considerably. This was shown by the media treatment of the international climate negotiations of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) in Bali 2008 (Eide et al., 2009) or Copenhagen 2009 (Painter, 2010) that varied across countries despite the commonly shared objects of news reporting. The high visibility of climate sceptics or climate contrarians in the US mainstream media compared to European countries such as Finland is another example (Boykoff & Boykoff, 2007; UusiRauva & Tienari, 2010). National level media institutions combine international influences with local practices determined by social, political, economic and ecological contexts (Olausson, 2009; Adelekan, 2009). For example, the comparison between the commercially oriented US media system and public service oriented system, such as in Finland, shows that public service television devotes more attention to public affairs and international news, and fosters greater knowledge in these areas (Curran et al., 2009).

The climatic vulnerability of winter tourism activities other than downhill skiing or snowmobiling has remained unstudied even though winter tourism has lately received plenty of attention in relation to climate change. As winter tourism entrepreneurs operate in diverse environments and have diverse customer groups, the sector cannot be considered as one homogenous group. Special attention should be directed to individual activities, especially in the context of the Nordic countries where importance of downhill skiing is relatively low. In this article, the sensitivity of winter tourism activities to climatic events is assessed in a Finnish context using questionnaire data gathered from winter tourism entrepreneurs operating in Finland. According to results, the vulnerability of winter tourism to climate depends both on the activity and on the region where activities are produced. About three‐quarters of winter tourism enterprises are affected by weather events such as high or extremely low temperatures or high wind that cause cancellations. Climate change in Finland is not predicted to shorten the length of the snow season below the critical length as expressed by the entrepreneurs. Considering this, the future of winter tourism in Finland and similar areas may be more sensitive to the changes in the frequency and severity of weather extremes than to the changes in the season lengths.

The role of migration as one potential adaptation to climate change is increasingly recognized, but little is known about whether migration constitutes successful adaptation, under what conditions, and for whom. Based on a review of emerging migration science, we propose that migration is a successful adaptation to climate change if it increases well-being, reduces inequality, and promotes sustainability. Well-being, equity, and sustainability represent entry points for identifying trade-offs within and across different social and temporal scales that could potentially undermine the success of migration as adaptation. We show that assessment of success at various scales requires the incorporation of consequences such as loss of population in migration source areas, climate risk in migration destination, and material and non-material flows and economic synergies between source and destination. These dynamics and evaluation criteria can help make migration visible and tractable to policy as an effective adaptation option.

Museums and science centers hold a unique position in the media and political landscape as trusted information sources and are emerging as key players in climate change debates. The modes of engagement with audiences, visitors, and publics allow museums to provide sensorial and affective experiences though the agency of objects and immersive environments, which facilitate an active role on the part of audiences in cocreating narratives around climate change. This article draws on the research findings of an Australian Research Council Linkage project, Hot Science, Global Citizens: the agency of the museum sector in climate change interventions. Hot Science was an international, interdisciplinary project that interrogated the roles of museums and science centers in climate change as places to provide information, activate and broker discussions, and decisions around climate change issues, locally and transnationally. We put forward nine propositions, distilled from the project research findings and the sector‐wide views presented during a symposium held in 2011. We use these propositions to look critically at the ways in which climate change challenges the established concepts and practices of museums and science centers as places of influence, relevance, and certainty in an uncertain world. This includes, for example, the way science is produced, represented, and communicated. Recognizing the complexity and multiscalar nature of climate change entails building more effective responses that translate into action. The big task of the museum sector is not only to inform publics on the science of climate change but also to equip citizens with tactical knowledges that enable participation in actions and debates on climate change that affect their futures. WIREs Clim Change 2013, 4:9–21. doi: 10.1002/wcc.200This article is categorized under: Perceptions, Behavior, and Communication of Climate Change > Communication Social Status of Climate Change Knowledge > Knowledge and Practice Trans‐Disciplinary Perspectives > Humanities and the Creative Arts

National scale assessment of climate change impacts on flooding in Finland

This conceptual paper reviews four dimensions of the climate change (CC) debate concerning perception, framing, and political and economic dimensions of CC. It attempts to address the question posed by sociological research as to what can be done to reduce the social forces driving CC. In doing so, it attempts to uncover mechanisms that delay or prevent the social change required to combat CC. Such mechanisms call into question the Ecological Modernization Theory's assumption that modern societies embrace environmental sustainability with no radical intervention to change the social, political, and economic order. It specifically considers how the representation of CC as a distant phenomenon, in both temporal and physical terms, might contribute to social disengagement. A reflection on the interdependencies among science, political economy, media, and individual perceptions guides this paper. All these social forces also shape the CC discourse in diverse ways according to the evolution of the phenomenon over time (in scientific, but also in political and economic terms) and in relation to its spatial dimension (global/national/local). The variety of climate discourses contributes to increasing political uncertainty; however, this is not the only factor that generates confusion around the CC. Multiple and contrasting information might trigger a “blaming/empowering game” that works at various levels. This mechanism simultaneously promotes the necessity for sustainable development and perpetuates “business as usual‐oriented” practices. Implementing sustainable development is therefore constantly undermined by a difficulty in identifying “heroes” and “devils” in the context of CC.

Managing flood risks in a changing climate

Collectif Argos: Climate Refugees

Publicly funded broadcasters with a track record in science programming would appear ideally placed to represent climate change to the lay public. Free from the constraints of vested interests and the economic imperative, public service providers are better equipped to represent the scientific, social and economic aspects of climate change than commercial media, where ownership conglomeration, corporate lobbyists and online competition have driven increasingly tabloid coverage with an emphasis on controversy. This prime-time snapshot of the Australian Broadcasting Corporation's main television channel explores how the structural/rhetorical conventions of three established public service genres - a science programme, a documentary and a live public affairs talk show - impact on the representation of anthropogenic climate change. The study findings note implications for public trust, and discuss possibilities for innovation in the interests of better public understanding of climate change.

News coverage of climate change has increased in the English‐speaking industrialised countries since 2005. The development of news coverage, especially in the United States, has been widely studied. Knowledge of the development and contents of climate debate in other languages than English is sparse. This paper presents the development on the press news coverage on climate change in Finland during the period 1990–2009 and discusses different social, economic and ecological factors influencing the news coverage.

This paper examines the potential impact of climate change on grassland butterfly species in Finland. It combines multiple climate change scenarios and different impact models for bioclimatic suitability to capture multi-faceted aspects of uncertainty. It also evaluates alternative options to enhance the adaptation of grassland biodiversity. Due to the long-term decline of semi-natural grasslands, their current extent in Finland is much lower than the minimum level estimated to ensure the survival of butterfly species. Projected locations of the climatically most suitable areas for butterfly species varied considerably between different modelling techniques and climate change scenarios. This uncertainty needs to be taken into account in planning adaptation responses. Analysis of potential adaptation options considered the promotion of existing measures based on the agri-environmental scheme (AES), as well as new measures, including species translocation and dispersal corridors. Current AES options were compared using a cost-effectiveness analysis (CEA). The CEA results indicated that buffer zones are the most cost-effective AES measure, although environmental fallows and buffer zones had broadly similar cost-effectiveness. The cost of translocation was relatively modest compared to that of dispersal corridors, due to the high number of habitat stepping stones required along potential dispersal corridors. A questionnaire survey of Finnish farmers revealed that a third of the respondents supported increases in nature conservation. Thus, large increases of the uptake of biodiversity-related AES measures among farmers may prove to be difficult. Given the small areas currently assigned for such measures, the prospects for the adaptation of grassland butterflies to climate change in Finland appear unfavourable.