Beyond the Glass Case by Nick Merriman

Author:Nick Merriman [Merriman, Nick]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Social Science, Archaeology
ISBN: 9781315432953
Google: Qq4YDQAAQBAJ
Publisher: Routledge
Published: 2016-09-16T04:30:22+00:00

The deterrent ‘double effect’

On the other hand the image may not just be a historical burden placed on the shoulders of modern museum directors, but it may still in fact be justified. As we have seen, half of the museums in Britain have opened since 1971, so the explanation cannot lie purely in historical legacy; negative images might be expressing something about the way in which museums still operate in contemporary society. In order for such an adverse image to survive, it must still fulfil some sort of useful role in articulating what certain social groups feel about museums. In other words, the persistence of negative images of museums deriving from their historical role shows that this divisive role is still one that they play today, and which thus deserves the negative images held amongst non-visitors. The way in which this contemporary adverse image of museums works is a product of social position and socialisation.

Age Table 4.3 has shown that age is one of the principal factors influencing museum visiting, and that the main effect of this is seen amongst the over 60s, 50 per cent of whom have either never visited a museum or last visited one more than five years ago. In the last chapter it was shown that only a relatively small part of this could be explained by structural factors such as ill-health and lack of money. Examination of the historical image of the museums, and of leisure opportunity, suggests that age has a double effect in either encouraging or discouraging museum visiting: the elderly are both less likely to have been socialized into museum visiting when young, and are also likely to be more 'disengaged' from society than other groups (and conversely, younger age groups are more likely to be socialized into museum visiting and to be more 'engaged').

The first reduction in opportunity is a 'period effect', i.e. the effect of the conditions of the period in which those who are now over 60 were initially brought up. Anyone over 60 at the time of the survey was born before 1925 and consequently brought up before the Second World War. In 1940 there were around only a third of the museums that are available today (calculations based on Prince and Higgins-McLoughlin 1987 Figure 2.3) which means that there would have been fewer opportunities to visit. In addition, crosstabulation of age by education shows that the over 60s are more likely than any other group to have left school at the minimum age (Table 6.1).

Table 6.1 Age by education

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