Social responsibility of public cultural institutions – the example of museology. Observations, reflections and preliminary analysis – summary of the focus group stage

The term ‘social responsibility of museums’ implies various associations, most frequently referring to the sphere of management and the activities of commercial entities in accordance with the ISO 26000 standard. In this article, we report on some of the tasks performed in connection with a project based on a sociological perspective and addressing the social responsibility of public cultural institutions such as museums. As this concept is relatively new, we decided to check how it is understood in the social world of Polish museum professionals. The research was therefore carried out using elements of the grounded theory methodology, i.e., the concepts (categories) were not defined at the outset, but defined and characterised in the course of the research according to the understanding of the respondents. Using a triangulation of methods, an analysis of found data, individual interviews in Polish museums (IDI) and focus group interviews (FGI) in Polish and international groups were conducted. A particularly interesting strand of the Project was museum education and its growing importance. This article focuses on the conducted focus group interviews (FGI). A specific commentary on the findings is provided by the reflections given during a guest lecture by Dr Bernadette Lynch organised as part of the Project.