ABSTRACT
This chapter takes a rich in-depth look at the Open Museum (OM) to unpick and discuss the museum’s approach to social inclusion work. Specifically, this chapter narrates how staff’s everyday habits and norms create an infrastructure which supports their social inclusion work, but which can sometimes hinder their use of social media. As discussed in Chapter 2, infrastructures are created through the assembling of objects, technologies, people, and social practice to support a task or everyday work. The facets that constitute an infrastructure for social inclusion work at the OM include the creation of safe, welcoming spaces for participants, prioritising the touch of objects to cultivate connections, and finally, reaching local individuals/groups who are challenged by issues related to processes of social exclusion. This chapter further reveals that beyond challenging organisational conditions that can result in using social media for ‘over-marketing’ and or as an ‘add-on’ to museum practices, staff may also approach social media hesitantly due to critical perceptions of its use in relation to their social values and institutional missions. In turn, the chapter sets the stage for understanding how practices and structures associated with social inclusion agendas can be adapted to social media and the skills that are necessary to do so.
