ABSTRACT

This chapter seeks to explore the dialogue on activist practice by focusing on the role of museum staff as community members within the institution, and the influence of their individual values on the work of the museum. It draws on larger study on trust in the museum, which explored the synergies and differences in organisational, staff group and individual values. The chapter offers a particular consideration of the uniqueness of human responses to engage with social justice-oriented practices that are usually articulated in organisational terms. It deals with a brief introduction to the research and considers common value sets and the model of critical community practice, before discussing some of the research findings that consider the activist role of individual museum staff. The qualitative survey revealed that people working for museums associated closely with intrinsic values, but often perceived their museum organisations to have more connection with extrinsic concerns.