Museum Frictions : Public Cultures / Global Transformations, Ivan Karp, Corinne Kratz, Lynn Szwaja and Tomas Ybarra-Frausto (Eds.), with Gustavo Buntinx, Barbara Kirshenblatt-Gimblett and Ciraj RassoolTransforming Museums : Mounting Queen Victoria in a Democratic South Africa, Steven C. Dubin : book review

The emergence of the 'new museology' in the 1980s heralded a critical turn in museum practice. In 1984 the Declaration of Quebec, issued by the International Council of Museums (ICOM), affirmed the social mandate of museums and responded to postcolonial voices that drew attention to the embedded power relations in the previously taken-for-granted museum practices of collection, interpretation, conservation and exhibition. The new museology movement was not defined by a single perspective but called for a more critical, reflexive approach to museum practice, a move away from limited operational concerns to an intellectual engagement with issues of representation, ownership, community-elations and curatorial authority.