The co-production of difference? Exploring urban youths’ negotiations of identity in meeting with difficult heritage of human classification

Abstract

This paper explores the capacity of museums to stimulate critical reflection and dialog on constructions of human difference, and thereby to serve as agents of social change. The study draws on material from focus groups with youths, aged 16–18, following their visit to the exhibition FOLK – from racial types to DNA sequences at the Norwegian Museum of Science and Technology in Oslo. By juxtaposing past and present ideas and research on human biological variation, and its political and social ramifications, the exhibition aims to provoke consciousness and debate on strategies of establishing Us and Them. Discourse analysis demonstrates the negotiations involved in audience meaning-making, but also indicate the transforming potential of engagement with difficult heritage. The interactions and discussions between the visitors themselves emerge as an important ingredient in what constitute this potential. Museums are, however, in the position to become arenas for such deep discussion.