ABSTRACT
Ethics in museums often sit at the heart of discussions about collecting practices and questions of repatriation, yet their role in other museum practices rarely gains attention in the field. International and national codes of ethics have recently begun to be revised to ensure that they reflect the social responsibility of museums, such as through guidelines on the relational aspect of (participatory) museum work. Recent studies point to the relevance of ethics in participatory museum work without clearly describing the practical application of (old or revised) ethical principles. Equally, museum practitioners rarely prioritise ethics in their day-to-day work. However, as museums increasingly apply participatory approaches, their staff should consider the different ethical practices that require their attention, amongst which are accessibility, truthful representation, positionality, and care. This chapter provides a basis for the work that is yet to be done to ensure ethical practices for all those involved and proposes a participatory approach to defining the ethical considerations for a project.
In this chapter, we discuss different codes of conduct and assess how these shape the practices that are part of participatory projects today. Rather than further theorising ethics, we build on practical examples from different participatory projects. From participation as a necessary means to truthful representation to consent forms as integral to the practice of care, the examples drawn from the work of the Museum Europäischer Kulturen – Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, Stiftung Preußischer Kulturbesitz highlight different tools and procedures that ensure ethical practices in museums. In doing so, this practice-based chapter points to processes of learning and discusses how ethical codes and practices can be tailored to support the museum’s participatory work in the future.
