ABSTRACT
Museums and science centers are emerging as key players in climate change action. They have unique communicative, affective and social qualities and promote inter-generational learning outside the classroom. All these characteristics and activities can be purposefully deployed and critically developed to enable them to have agency in climate change governance in many different ways. In contrast to more politically defined sectors, research indicates that museums hold a unique position in the media and political landscape as trusted information sources, second only to science organizations and way ahead of the mainstream media and government as places to communicate climate science and raise awareness of climate change (Cameron et al. 2009). Museums are also one of the few civic venues in Western societies where strangers can gather (Gurian 2005, 31–37). They are perceived by audiences as impartial, “safe,” places that increasingly enable conversations and social interactions (Gurian 2005; Sandell 2007; Cameron 2007). For many, they are powerful places to challenge and change views on social issues, as long as visitors can engage them on their own terms (Kelly 2006). The ability of museums to provide sensorial or affective experiences through the agency of objects and immersive experiences can also facilitate an active role on the part of audiences in co-creating narratives around climate change (Witcomb 2010). Social media has also opened up new, exciting opportunities for the museum sector to network and dialogue with broader communities and engage diverse interests and points of view (Russo et al. 2006) across vast distances, beyond the museum walls, and become part of new conversations and decision processes on the topic of global warming.
