City museums and city development

Contributions by Marie Louise Bourbeau, Caroline Butler-Bowden, Szu-yun Chang, Chi-jung Chu, Anja Dauschek, Geoffrey Edwards, Max Hebditch, Susan Hunt, Jack Lohman, Marlen Mouliou, Gulchachak Rakhimzyanovna Nazipova, Chet Orloff, Georges Prévélakis, Eric Sandweiss Edited by Ian Jones, Robert R. Macdonald, Darryl McIntyre

Publication date:

26 September 2008

Length of book:

198 pages

Publisher

AltaMira Press

Dimensions:

226x150mm
6x9"

ISBN-13: 9780759111806

Traditionally, city museums have been keepers of city history. Many have been exercises in nostalgia, reflecting city pride. However, a new generation of museums focuses increasingly on the city's present and future as well as its past, and on the city in all of its diversity, challenges, and possibilities. Above all, these museums are gateways to understanding the city—our greatest and most complex creation and the place where half the world's population now lives. In this book, experts in the field explore this 'new' city museum and the challenge of contributing positively to city development.

Chapter 1. Cities and Museums about Them
Chapter 2. City Museums and the Geopolitics of Globalization
Chapter 3. Museums of Cities and the Future of Cities
Chapter 4. "The Novelties of the Town:" Museums, Cities, and Historical Representation
Chapter 5. The Prospect of a City Museum
Chapter 6. Thinking the Present Historically at the Museum of Sydney, Sydney, Australia
Chapter 7. A City Museum for Stuttgart: Some Issues in Planning a Museum for the 21st Century
Chapter 8. Taipei City Museum in the Making
Chapter 9. Museums and Urban Renewal in Towns
Chapter 10. The Development of the City of Kazan: The Museum Aspect
Chapter 11. Defining a Research Agenda for City Museums in a Peripheralizing World
Chapter 12. From Urban Blocks to City Blogs: Defining Attributes for the City Museum of Today

Cities need museums as people need memories: not as a repository of their past, but as a token of their identity and a guide to the future. Here is a unique survey of city museums from five continents to stimulate discussion about such museums' varied functions – from archive to development workshop.