Onur, BekirKaradeniz, Ceren2022-06-212022-06-212015http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.12575/82185Although the definition and use of culture varies based on what each disciple tries to explain with it and how they use this concept, the most common definition of culture is to share of beliefs, values and objects by a society and the pursue of this by generations. Within this period, components of a society containing diversity play important roles and they reveal the concept of "cultural diversity". By regarding the differences in components of a culture's belief, identity, value, language, religion, life style, art, demographic factors etc. which can be seen in contemporary societies as "riches", cultural diversity is an approach including all conscious and well-organized communities that live on their own belief and practice systems and supporting to identify these communities by empowering them. With the influence of postmodernism, in the 21st century contemporary museums strive to become a pluralist institutions which face the society and the past, interpret the collections and respect human rights. As museums aim to "exist for human beings" rather than for objects, they emphasize cultural diversity in order to abolish the discourses of social exclusion and marginalization. The definition of museum by International Council of Museum (ICOM) lays more emphasize on the functions of being socialist, being for the society, being at society's service, being open to public and providing education after handling the concept of cultural diversity. Contemporary museums have focused on the purpose of creating a platform of living together and they started to perform studies in order to solve the problems like ethnic centralism, cultural subjectivity, prejudice, discrimination and racism. They manage their collections with cultural diversity approach based on Universal Declaration on Cultural Diversity; also they plan their exhibition designs, activities, architectural features, promotional and educational works in this direction. Since 2000, it has been observed that studies in museums focusing on social functions generally emphasize to look for cultural diversity in museum collections, to exhibit the dynamics of culture regarding different communities and even individuals, to create cultural experiences which provide direct participation of the audience, to present audience strategies and to cooperate with different groups in society within all these periods. Apart from this, it has been also seen that museums work on providing labor diversity for staff selection and empowerment of organization. With reference to these studies, in order for museums in Turkey to become institutions which have closer relations with their neighborhood and which are more autonomous by overcoming bureaucratic obstacles, it is urgent to develop an activation plan for cultural diversity. In this study, cultural diversity phenomenon is studied within the context of museum. In this direction, it is studied how different kind of museums in the world and in Turkey handle with exhibitions and activities containing cultural diversity within the functions of traditional and modern museum studies; awareness levels and approaches of museum experts working in state archeology museums of the Ministry of Culture and Tourism in Turkey about applying cultural diversity in museums are determined. The research containing both qualitative and quantitative research methods has more than one study group. In order to determine the awareness level of museum experts working in state archeology museums which are reporting to the Ministry of Culture and Tourism regarding the application of cultural diversity in museums, a measurement tool was developed; this tool was applied to 178 museum experts (archeologists and museum researchers) working in the state archeology museums between the dates of 01.11.2014 and 01.01.2015. Also an interview form was develop in order to determine personal approaches of these museum experts working in state archeology museums regarding the application of cultural diversity in museums and institutional approach of the museum in which they work. The form was applied to 11 museum experts working in Ankara, Çorum, Kırşehir, İstanbul, Eskişehir, Antalya, Aydın, Samsun, Balıkesir, Erzurum and Mardin between the dates of 01.02.2015 – 01.05.2015. The measurement tool which was developed in order to determine the awareness level of museum experts regarding cultural diversity includes the elements in the themes of representation of cultural diversity in museums, social functions of museums, exhibition designs and in-service training. The responses within the data set have shown that the experts have positive opinions about the necessity of applying cultural diversity in museums and they also think that museums are institutions representing cultural diversity at national and international level. Experts think that museums should provide the society with the awareness of cultural diversity and during this period they have to organize activities which will address to various communities such as courses, meetings, seminars, workplace programs etc. Furthermore, experts state that museums experts need to participate in in-service trainings with cultural diversity theme throughout all these processes. The findings show that archeology museums have the necessary labor force that is responsive to cultural diversity in order to carry traditional museum understanding to a more modern platform based on their collections. It is seen that the approach of experts and directors also determines the approach of the museum and in some museums the approach is reflected in the practices of museums. Thus, the findings revealed that museums should pursue their strategies in touch with the ministry in terms of their neighborhood so that the process would provide authenticity and diversity. Impression of the researcher is that authentic practices in archeology museums will increase the interest and participation of the public to museums and other museum types will help to diversify museum practices and to create new museum types which emphasize rich association of different cultures. With the support of research findings "a practical handbook of cultural diversity for archaeology museums" has been completed as the conclusion for the research.trArkeoloji müzeleriKültür politikasıKültürel çeşitlilikdoctoralThesis