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Museums as Actors of City Diplomacy: From “Hard” Assets to “Soft” Power

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City Diplomacy

Part of the book series: Palgrave Macmillan Series in Global Public Diplomacy ((GPD))

Abstract

Historically, museums have earned their dedicated role as important agents of cultural diplomacy. In the age of increasing urbanization, museums have become important center of urban soft power and actors of city diplomacy. This chapter argues that museums are vital actors of city diplomacy, because of a high cultural and economic value of their “hard” or tangible resources and “soft” power of their social activities that engage global audiences and facilitate international cultural relations. This chapter discusses this framework of museum diplomacy resources and outputs in two main sections. The first section focuses on “hard” assets of museums such as collections and facilities. It explains why and how the cultural infrastructure offered by museums play an important role in city diplomacy, especially in place making and city branding. The second section explores soft power generated by museums through their social activities and programming that help activate cultural resources and transform them into diplomatic outputs.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. National Research University “Higher School of Economics”, Moscow, Russia

    Natalia Grincheva

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  1. Natalia Grincheva
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Correspondence to Natalia Grincheva .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Pardee RAND Graduate School, Santa Monica, CA, USA

    Sohaela Amiri

  2. Center on Public Diplomacy University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA, USA

    Sohaela Amiri

  3. Department of Mass Communication, Towson University, Towson, MD, USA

    Efe Sevin

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Grincheva, N. (2020). Museums as Actors of City Diplomacy: From “Hard” Assets to “Soft” Power. In: Amiri, S., Sevin, E. (eds) City Diplomacy. Palgrave Macmillan Series in Global Public Diplomacy. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-45615-3_6

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