Los debates del concepto de “museo” del Consejo Internacional de Museos en clave luso e hispanoparlante

Abstract

This article addresses the contemporary situation of museums and, more specifically, their self-conception, inevitably linked to the very definition of “museum”. In this sense, it has been from museology where the existing difficulties for redefinition have been perceived. This has led to a delay in conceptualising and approving the term in the global context of the International Council of Museums (ICOM). In order to understand the background, to know what was done and what has been its evolution, this article examines, chronologically, the terminology of all the resolutions and declarations of the organizations, as well as the different definitions of the museum until the failed proposal of 2019, as well as the last one approved in August 2022. This leads us to explore the important terminological connection with such hot topics such as: sustainability, social inclusion, community, among others. Concerns identified in the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) themselves. As a result of this terminological evaluation, we will be able to see the importance of the study on the sustainability of museums and identify which countries have participated the most and have been involved to a greater extent in the creation of the museum definition. In this sense, as stated in the title of the article, the Portuguese and Spanish-speaking countries have an extraordinary impact, a fact that should not go unnoticed, and that is being carried out in the construction of what is intended to be the new museum of the twenty-first century.

Keywords

• museology
• social inclusion
• sustainability
• museum definition
• International Council of Museums