Museum education in semi-peripheries: social, cultural and economic aspects of the globalisation of Polish and Slovak heritage institutions

Abstract

The paper examines the problem of change in Central-Eastern European museum education in the globalising world. The main objective is to answer the question of whether museums located in peripheral regions of semi-peripheral states introduce patterns developed in global core-states or maintain the approach invented during the former political period. Its main assumption is that globalisation is a discursive process engaging global, national and local cultural elements, leading to reshaping of local patterns. The paper is based on 14 in-depth interviews conducted with curators working at local museums of the Subcarpathian and Košice regions, supported by four interviews carried out with museum workers of national museums in Warsaw and Bratislava.