Museums and Societal Collapse explores the implications of societal collapse from a multidisciplinary perspective and considers the potential museums have to contribute to the reimagining and transitioning of a new society with the threat of collapse.
Arguing that societal collapse is underway, but that total collapse is not inevitable, Janes maintains that museums are well-positioned to mitigate and adapt to the disruptions of societal collapse. As institutions of the commons, belonging to and affecting the public at large, he contends that museums are both responsible and capable of contributing to the durability and well-being of individuals, families, and communities, and enhancing societal resilience in the face of critical issues confronting our species. Within the pages of this groundbreaking book, Janes demonstrates how museums and their staff, as key civic resources with ethical responsibilities, can examine the meaning and value of their work, how that work is organized and managed, and to what end. This is a call to action, demonstrating how museums can move the conversation about collapse into society at large.
Museums and Societal Collapse will be essential reading for museum professionals working in museums and galleries, as well as for cultural and civil society organizations around the world. It will also be an essential reading for academics and students of Museum and Heritage Studies, Gallery Studies, Heritage Management, and Arts Management.
Table of Contents:
Introduction 1. Harbingers of collapse 2. The anatomy of collapse 3. The myth of sustainability 4. Why museums? 5. The museum as lifeboat 6. Afterthoughts 7. Coda
About the Author :
Robert R. Janes is an independent scholar/practitioner; editor-in-chief emeritus of the journal Museum Management and Curatorship; a visiting research fellow at the School of Museum Studies at the University of Leicester, UK, and the founder of the Coalition of Museums for Climate Justice. His museum publications have been translated into ten languages. He lives in Canmore, Alberta, Canada.
Review :
"When people think of museums, many imagine dusty repositories for the art and artifacts of bygone civilizations. Not so Robert Janes. To Janes, museums should represent the whole of time's arrow—past is prologue to the present which serves as harbinger to the future. Janes argues that museums can (re)organize, using what we know today to nudge humanity away from the black holes of despair toward the brightest stars in the constellation of future possibilities."
William Rees, University of British Columbia
"Janes is an unflinching truth teller who eschews pressures to make museums more like corporations and retains his brave, visionary, and practical view of museums. He explores how we can use these vital sites to grapple with the existential threats of the Anthropocene. Museums and Societal Collapse is challenging. But it also illuminates useful work in museums as a path forward."
Elena Gonzales, Chicago History Museum
"Why should museum practitioners care about societal collapse? And, why should readers aware of global survival-level crises like climate change care about museums? Humanity’s rich cultural legacy is endangered by the converging predicaments of the 21st century, and it is largely up to museums to ensure that future generations have access to that legacy. Robert Janes lucidly and bravely explores how museums can aid cultural survival in a time of polycrisis."
Richard Heinberg, Post Carbon Institute
"All of Janes' books are milestones in thinking about the museum, its role, and its evolution. Museums and Societal Collapse addresses for the first time, abruptly, a topic related to the possible vanishing of our civilization. Global warming, resource depletion, increasing inequalities and conflicts provide the breeding ground for a radical world’s metamorphosis. The role that museums can play in mitigating the effects of these transformations is at the heart of the author's concerns: a book that must be read."
François Mairesse, Université Sorbonne nouvelle
"Robert R. Janes has been challenging museums—and their workers—for decades to improve their internal cultures in order to better serve communities. Museums and Societal Collapse expands Janes’s scope and challenge to what role museums must play in a world whose accelerating collapse may render museums obsolete. Museum workers who are ready to serve communities in regenerating civil society, and to move past hope to action, must read this book."
Robert J Weisberg, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, and creator of the Museum Human blog
"I feel obligated to write this book’ writes Robert Janes - and it is one for which there is absolute need. Multiple crises are converging and just as museums have not faced up to 'climate grief', and 'societal breakdown', neither has the museum literature. Janes challenges the 'immorality of inaction' in museums, while weaving in personal experience and reflection. He challenges all of us in museums to examine our personal values and those of our institutions. This is a very necessary and urgent wake-up call by a globally respected museum leader and elder."
Bernadette Lynch, Founder of the Solidarity in Action Network, museum practitioner and scholar
"Janes forcefully explains how industrial societies must choose now to recalibrate from mindless, automated, and/or expected to thoughtful, cooperative, and adaptive approaches, or they will be forced to, soon. Continued growth of economies, sectors, and museum audiences is a treacherous, misguided goal that will drive us to our own extinction. His data on our situation is solid and thorough, and a good resource for all who might question our current straits. The social and climate systems cannot be separated in either cause or effect. This work can support us all in organizing our thoughts and actions for addressing both in a just and effective manner."
Sarah Sutton, Environment & Culture Partners (ECP)
