Connie Svabo

Materiality in a practice‐based approach

Purpose – The paper aims to provide an overview of the vocabulary for materiality which is used by practice‐based approaches to organizational knowing.Design/methodology/approach – The overview is theoretically generated and is based on the anthology Knowing in Organizations: A Practice‐based Approach edited by Nicolini, Gherardi and Yanow. The overview is built by cross‐reading the analyses in this book. The intellectual traditions which are scrutinized all agree that action is materially embedded – objects and artifacts are central to both knowing and learning. But what is their understanding of materiality? The paper explores which concepts are used, how the interaction between social and material realities is presented, and the role materiality is perceived to have in relation to action.Findings – Findings are that, within the practice‐based approach, common terms for materiality are “artifact” and “object”. The interaction between social and material realities is grasped as several processes: object‐...

The tourist gaze and “Family Treasure Trails” in museums

Museums are largely neglected in the tourist research literature. This is even more striking given that they are arguably designed for gazing. There is little doubt that “graying” of the Western population adds to the number and range of museums. And yet, even in adult museums, there will be children who are “dragged along.” Museums are increasingly aware of such conflicts and dilemmas. Many museums offer printed booklets with “treasure trails.” They afford a trail through the museum that forms a treasure hunt for specific objects and correct answers to questions related to the objects. This article draws attention to this overlooked, mundane technology and gives it its deserved share of the limelight. We are concerned with exploring ethnographically how trails are designed and especially used by young families in museums for gazing. The article gives insight into how children, broadly speaking, learn to gaze within museums as well as small-scale negotiations and conflicts between families gazing. So we are concerned with how family trails affect the museum visit.