Museums in Building Social Capital

Abstract

The article analyzes the role of museums in the formation of social capital in society, presents the possibilities of museum-type institutions in this context for Ukrainian society. The advantages of societies with a high level of social capital are highlighted; the urgency of this problem for our country is substantiated.
Museums are a separate group of exceptional social institutions, the meaning of existence and the true nature of which was revealed and manifested only in the XXI century. Today, museums have gone far beyond their vision of decades past – in developed economies, they are becoming agents of social change, transforming social practices, helping to reduce antisocial phenomena and bringing significant benefits to local communities. We can compare how drastically the interpretation of the museum's mission and the vector of its activity in the era of globalization have changed in just some 20-30 years.
Over the last decade, museums in Ukraine have responded more confidently to social and political problems in society, participated more actively in the consolidation of society, and generated new practices of cooperation with the local groups. The intensity of the media environment, the rapid development of IT technologies help individual museums to more openly broadcast their communicative mission.
At the present stage society is slowly but surely changing. Post-communist transformation, unpredictability of the political future, economic problems and military aggression in the east of the country have led to problems of adaptation of the population to new socio-economic conditions and test the resilience of our communities. All this changes everyday life and requires adaptation to new conditions. In this direction, provided a well-thought-out strategy and appropriate regula-tory framework, museums have significant positive potential.