Babel Tower: museum people in dialogue

This book is the result of a series of transnational and transdisciplinary conversations around one leading question: how people relate to the tangible and intangible heritage, to plan a more just and inclusive future, in times of ecological transition and societal changes. Such a wide question has been explored digging into theories and practices, that can be interpreted as various forms of experimental and insurgent museologies, at the intersection with insurgent planning: spontaneous initiatives, as well as innovative breaches into the institutional machines, aimed at proposing alternatives to the mainstream.
However, here the editors do not want to come out with a new definition. Rather, the book proposes an exploratory journey around different emerging concepts and examples that seem to open some windows of opportunities in the broad and diverse international community. It offers some insights on how various expressions of museologies are changing with current societal and ecological pressing issues.

The idea of the title – Babel Tower – stresses the opportunity of exploring different languages, areas, and jargon related to the field of museums and other experimental devices (such as ecomuseums), their relations with communities, citizenship, territories, heritage, landscape, and local development.
The book is structured as follows. After an introductory piece written by the editors, who present the theoretical framework and the fil rouge connecting the diverse contributions, the first part is dedicated to a reflection focused on some emerging forms of contemporary museology; the second part is called “Beyond the Museum: emerging territorial practices”, reflecting around some experiences “in-between” insurgent museologies and planning, such as ecomuseums. Conclusions are written by Alberto Garlandini.