What Difference Do Museums Make?

Abstract What role do museums play in societies recovering from violence? Transitional justice museums are often constructed to help legitimize inchoate legal and political systems and promote reconciliation. In some cases, however, these sites can be coopted by self-interested elites, and a museum’s mere existence and content could be sources of polarization. Despite the popularity of transitional justice museums, few have examined their impact. This chapter proposes a research agenda that endeavors to understand the role of museums in shifting public opinion, promoting peace, and preventing returns to violence. The authors develop a general theory of how and why museums affect visitors, suggesting that their nature and impacts are dependent on context: the form they take, and their effects vary, based on the type of conflict memorialized and whether they were established by the state or through grassroots efforts. The results of this research will be of value to both transitioning societies and the international community at large, which stands to benefit from tactics that break cycles of violence and establish stability.