Museology in a Vacuum

Abstract

In this paper, I look at the absence of theoretical framework as the cause of museology's (comparative) underdevelopment. It is also the cause of degradation of museums; unlike their conterparts in the world, museums in Serbia have remained isolated from the local/regional communities, failing to offer programs that might be actively integrated into people's lives. Conditions for a more significant activation of museums in their local communities (in the sense of creating and carrying out programs that are wanted and needed by the audience) will only be fulfilled in Serbia when museology achieves its own standing, and grows from an underrecognized and neglected subdiscipline that even its practitioners are ashamed of, into a theoretically grounded professional and scholarly work it is in other countries. It is also necessary that museum curators start applying contemporary theoretical frameworks of their respective disciplines in their work, and stop relying on museology alone.