Political Uses of Museums at the European Level

This paper is based on the findings of a socio-historical and ethnographic study conducted between 2004 and 2010 and focusing on the museums of Europe that have emerged in several West European countries since the late 1980s. These museums, which are devoted in an unprecedented way to the history and culture of Europe and that are built in part for identity purposes, could be seen as agents of European consciousness (Shore, 2000). In these museums, the idea of a European past is amply mobilized. This process is considered crucial to establishing a European memory, which is itself deemed necessary to building a European identity. It is therefore necessary to examine how the museum as a tool is now exploited for making political use of the past beyond the nation state framework and to understand who decides to do so. By analyzing the links between the museums of Europe and the political uses of the past emerging on a European and EU scale (Gensburger 2008; Lavabre 2008), this paper sheds light on processes of the Europeanization of memory as a category of public action.