Changing Places: Evaluating the socio-cultural impact and experiential change of the new Museum of London in Smithfield

2024年，伦敦博物馆（MoL）搬迁到史密斯菲尔德，为城市博物馆与其城市文脉之间的相互作用提供了一个实证案例研究的机会。此举将改变MoL对城市的态度：不仅仅是将人们与伦敦的生活体验联系起来的使命，而是通过其收藏，项目，公众参与活动以及新址的独特形态。博物馆有潜力成为一个更具渗透性的机构，无论是在哲学上还是在空间上。要做到这一点，它必须在打开大门之前就了解其主题——伦敦——及其直接的城市背景——史密斯菲尔德的性质和社区。它还必须了解它的存在在其移动之前、期间和之后对同一环境的影响。该博士学位将发展一个理论和方法框架，以绘制和评估嵌入史密斯菲尔德的现存社会，象征和经验意义，支撑其身份的叙述，这些是如何创作和“阅读”的。此外，它将分析现有的社会文化景观如何为MoL的制度实践、与社区的联系以及周围环境的发展提供信息。这将产生一个实用的工具包，供MoL在研究期间之外使用，以应用于史密斯菲尔德不断变化的环境。博士课程将以行动研究为基础，采用混合方法。它将参与当前围绕博物馆作为社会变革推动者的学术话语，以及结合现象学和叙事理论方面的理论框架。这项研究将有助于了解博物馆空间如何与周围环境相互作用；新建或搬迁的机构如何“软着陆”；更好地理解基于地点的叙事及其对城市氛围和日常实践的影响。

The relocation of the Museum of London (MoL) to Smithfield in 2024 provides an opportunity for an empirical case study on the interplay between city museums and their urban contexts.The move will transform the MoL's approach to the city: not just to its mission to connect people to the lived experience of London, but across its collections, programmes, public engagement activities, and to the unique morphology of its new site. The museum has the potential to become a more permeable institution, both philosophically and spatially. To do so, it must understand the nature and communities of its subject - London - and its immediate urban context - Smithfield - well before it opens its doors. It must also understand the impact of its presence on that same context before, during and after its move. This PhD will develop a theoretical and methodological framework to map and evaluate the extant social, symbolic and experiential meanings embedded in Smithfield, the narratives that underpin its identity, how these are authored and 'read'. Further, it will analyse how the existing socio-cultural landscape can inform the MoL's institutional practices and connections to the neighbourhood, and the development of its surroundings. It will result in a practical toolkit to be used by the MoL beyond the period of the research to apply to the ongoing changing circumstances of Smithfield. The PhD will be action research-based and apply a mixed methods approach. It will engage with the current academic discourse around museums as agents of social change, as well as a theoretical framework combining aspects of phenomenology and narrative theory.The research will contribute to an understanding of how museum spaces physically interact with their surroundings; how new or relocated institutions can 'land softly'; and to better understand place-based narratives and their impact on urban atmospheres and everyday practices.