Museology in dialogue with history, philosophy, heritage issues: What St. Petersburg museum experts wrote in 2018

Abstract

Three publications on the problems of museology in 2018 are the focus of the paper. The paper presents the concept of the structure of science, in which museology is analyzed as a theory of culture and part of the science of cultural studies. Museography is considered an area of scientific and practical knowledge associated with the study of museum institutes in their historical dynamics and modern condition. Reliance on science (historical, art history, natural science) is an important characteristic of these studies. The choice of science most often depends on the profile of the museum. Finally, museum studies are the practices of museum work. This practice is based on Russian law, international principles and scientific methods. This is the third level of ‘museum knowledge,’ which is based on the ideas of museology and museography. The article indicates a decrease in the general interest in the problem field of museology and a decrease in the total number of works on theoretical problems. Monographic publications released in 2018 partially fill this gap. A review of the monograph by V. G. Ananyeva “History of foreign museology,” M. V. Biryukova “Philosophy of curatorship” and the textbook “Cultural Heritage and Museum in the 21st Century,” written by the team of the author of the St. Petersburg State Institute of Culture is presented in the article. Each of the works covers issues relevant to Russian museology: the study of foreign museology, philosophical research, and the problem of cultural heritage. Some studies examine museum issues in the context of philosophy, history, and the study of heritage. An important task in the development of museology as a theory of culture is the formation of its own scientific cultural discourse.