New Labour's Socially Responsible Museum

This article examines the ways in which recent UK governments and related policy agencies have extended, multiplied and refracted conceptions of the social function of museums. It observes that over the last ten years in particular policy discourses have continuously layered ever greater and ever more diverse expectations onto the museum sector and museum professionals. It is no longer sufficient for museums to work with their collections, nor even for them to focus upon their own problems or shortcomings (e.g. of unequal access) and seek to resolve them. Museums are increasingly being expected to orient their work towards what can be described as social policy objectives, and work with and help ‘fix’ the problems of individuals, communities and the broader society around them. It is argued that although official policies have always constructed museums as social and ethical instruments, New Labour policy discourses on museums have redefined them as a public service, with social inclusion as one of their central functions. The article brings into question the coherence and feasibility of this partly reconfigured and partly re-imagined museum sector and assesses its implications.