Research Catalog

Title

Cities, museums and soft power / edited by Gail Dexter Lord, Ngaire Blankenberg ; preface by Richard Florida.

Publication

• Washington, D.C. : AAM Press, 2015.
• ©2015

Items in the Library & Off-site

Holdings

Details

Additional Authors

• Lord, Gail Dexter, 1946-
• Blankenberg, Ngaire
• Florida, Richard L.

Description

vii, 263 pages : color illustrations; 24 cm

Summary

"'Soft power' emerged as a concept in the late twentieth century to describe international relations based not on military or economic strength, but on influence. While the resources of 'hard power' are tangible--force and finance--soft power resources include ideas, knowledge, values, and culture, as well as the ability to persuade. This volume discusses soft power from the vantage point of museums and demonstrates how they are quietly changing the world. With contributions by thirteen experts from ten countries, Cities, Museums and Soft Power reveals the world's 80,000 museums to be sleeping giants. Two major characteristics of soft power--the rise of cities and the role of civil society--are pushing museums from the margins toward the center as these institutions serve as education hubs, employers, magnets for creative industries, and engines of economic development. Meanwhile, the growth of technological networks and connectivity has enabled this soft power to spread even farther and deeper across the Internet and groups of people. Whether cozy and local or internationally renowned, museums possess a cultural strength that extends far beyond their walls "--

Subject

• Museums > Social aspects
• Museums > Economic aspects
• City and town life
• SOCIAL SCIENCE / Sociology / Urban
• ART / General
• Museum
• Menschenrecht

Bibliography (note)

• Includes bibliographical references (pages 245-251) and index.

Contents

Introduction: Why cities, museums and soft power / Gail Dexter Lord and Ngaire Blankenberg -- The economics of museums and cities / Javier Jimenez -- Museums in public diplomacy / Frederica Olivares -- London's knowledge quarter : the soft power of museums in the knowledge economy and urban development / Baillie Card -- Museums in the age of Brazilian soft power / Gege Leme Joseph -- Museums as signifiers in the Gulf / Hayfa Matar -- When soft powers collide / Ngaire Blankenberg -- Unearthing the genius loci of museums in the Indian subcontinent / Batul Raaj Mehta -- Cultural nomads : creative people on the road / Robert Punkenhofer -- Cranking up the soft power engine of Chinese museums / An Laishun -- A tale of two civil and human rights cities / Gail Dexter Lord and Joy Bailey Bryant -- Cairo and its museums : from multiculturalism to leadership in sustainable development / Mohamed Gamal Rashed -- Global and local : fairs and biennials, temporary urbanism and pop-up museums / Lourdes Fernandez -- The museum building boom / Guido Guerzoni -- Thirty-two ways for museums to activate their soft power / Ngaire Blankenbert and Gail Dexter Lord.

ISBN

• 9781941963036
• 194196303X

LCCN

• 2015010421
• 99965278622

OCLC

• 906936371
• ocn906936371
• SCSB-5830593

Owning Institutions

Columbia University Libraries