ABSTRACT
Museums, as I have previously argued (Sandell 1998, 2002), do not operate in a vacuum, as if sealed off from the social and political conditions that shape (constrain and oppress, empower and enable) lives beyond their walls. The narratives we prepare and present in museums have real consequences; ripple effects that, while sometimes diffuse and challenging to trace, nevertheless inform the ways in which we think, talk about and act towards difference. In this way, museum narratives – produced through displays, exhibitions and other modes of public communication – become part of the moral and ethical world in which we live, permeating language and shaping conduct and social interaction. They contribute to the everyday processes through which human rights are made, enacted and experienced.
