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This book offers an interactionist perspective on theories of public representation, knowledge and immigration in museum institutions. Examining how a Franco-German museum exhibition represents immigrants and exposes public stereotypes, the analysis follows the process of the production and reception of the exhibition as it travelled from Paris to Berlin. The author proposes a microsociological contextualisation analysis integrating discourse analysis and ethnography to compare formats of museum work, social interaction in the exhibition and mass media debates. Visitor reception of the different exhibition versions reveals the symbolic nature of interactions in museums, for example concerning conflicting political voices and accusations of censorship. Depending on the institutional context, interactions in the museums are geared towards securing immigrants a place in national collective memory, towards carrying out debate on integration, or providing opportunities for personal encounters and reflection beyond national categorisation. This book will appeal to students and researchers interested in work on the intersection of sociology, cultural studies, and discursive psychology, in methods of discourse analysis and ethnography; and to practitioners working in museums.
List of contents
1: Introduction: Staging public representations in the Cité Nationale de l'Histoire de l'Immigration, the Deutsches Historisches Museum, and the Friedrichshain-Kreuzberg Museum.- 2: Museums, the public, and immigration.- 3: Microsociological Contextualisation Analysis.- 4: Epistemic production behind the museum scenes in France and Germany.- 5: Public interactions on the museum stages.- 6: Conclusion: Exhibiting immigrants-exposing the public.
About the author
Yannik Porsché is a postdoctoral researcher in the Sociology department of the Bundeswehr University Munich, Germany. His research combines discourse analysis and ethnography, and focuses on social interactions in institutional work contexts. He recently published a book on police work in crime prevention - a study that was conducted at the Goethe-University Frankfurt and the Humboldt University of Berlin.
Summary
Investigates how the representation of foreigners in museum exhibitions on immigrant history is seen by the audience, and what it reveals about the national self
Sheds light on how museum staff, visitors, academics, journalists and politicians publicly exhibit images of immigrants
Combines conversation analysis, discourse analysis and ethnography to analyse large amounts of exhibition data in different institutional contexts
Additional text
“The book presents a detailed study of exhibits … . Porsché takes a look at the front-, back- and offstage of knowledge production. … The book’s ethnographic approach to communication is particularly valuable because it includes the analysis of video-recordings of interaction sequences. Field notes and expert knowledge from insiders shed further light … .” (Ralf Kruber, Slovo a slovesnost, Vol. 83 (1), 2022)
“A great strength of the book is its interdisciplinary use of methodological tools from (multimodal) conversation analysis, ethnography and sociology … . gives the readers a full picture of how museum exhibitions are staged and perceived. … Public Representations of Immigrants in Museums is an original book that brings museum studies and how knowledge is constructed in them, to the heart of discourse and interaction studies, paving the way for more epistemological and methodological synergies of the kind.” (Argyro Kantara, Discourse & Society, Vol. 30 (5), September, 2019)
Report
"The book presents a detailed study of exhibits ... . Porsché takes a look at the front-, back- and offstage of knowledge production. ... The book's ethnographic approach to communication is particularly valuable because it includes the analysis of video-recordings of interaction sequences. Field notes and expert knowledge from insiders shed further light ... ." (Ralf Kruber, Slovo a slovesnost, Vol. 83 (1), 2022)
"A great strength of the book is its interdisciplinary use of methodological tools from (multimodal) conversation analysis, ethnography and sociology ... . gives the readers a full picture of how museum exhibitions are staged and perceived. ... Public Representations of Immigrants in Museums is an original book that brings museum studies and how knowledge is constructed in them, to the heart of discourse and interaction studies, paving the way for more epistemological and methodological synergies of the kind." (Argyro Kantara, Discourse & Society, Vol. 30 (5), September, 2019)
