Practice Makes ‘Museum People’

Abstract

This article examines how museum work is evaluated, and how it affects museum professionals’ identities. The empirical material consists of biographical interviews of Finnish museum professionals. The key concept for the analysis is ‘museum people’, which represents the ideal museum workers. As a community of practice ‘museum people’ are defined by what they do – ‘proper’ museum work. Analyzing the defining practices and elements of the community also reveals that it is placed in a time and space of its own. Reflecting oneself to ‘museum people’ and their practices can be elemental for the identity work of a museum professional.

Keywords: Museum work, practices, community of practice, professional identity