Институционализация инклюзивных программ для посетителей с инвалидностью в музеях: между успешными инициативами и организационными барьерами

Социологический журнал. 2026. Т. 32. № 1. С. 28–42.

Dolgova E.

In the last decade, the development of museum inclusion in Russia has been so rapid that it has made it possible for people with disabilities to participate as visitors and employees and has led to the formation of inclusive museum communities. This article examines the institutional foundations of inclusive activities in museums aimed at working with the category of people with disabilities. Based on 40 in-depth semi-formal interviews with museum staff responsible for the development of inclusion and accessibility, as well as with museum workers with disabilities, it is shown that the emergence of inclusion in the Russian museum scene has launched institutional processes that changed the museum as an organization. Thematic analysis identifies three organizational models of inclusion that currently exist in Russia and that indicate varying degrees of institutional isomorphism: museums with full-fledged inclusivity departments (1), museums with individual employees responsible for inclusion (2), and museums without “inclusive” rates (3). Such stable museum practices have been established to ensure the successful implementation of inclusion as the stratification of the roles of inclusion specialists, the creation of cross-functional working groups that include experts with disabilities, and the rejection of stigmatizing labels in work and any wording that’s put forward. It is revealed that the institutionalization of inclusion in museums is a complex process that requires overcoming multi-level institutional barriers that hinder the process of introducing and legitimizing new social rules and roles in the organizational structure of the museum. In conclusion, a systematic approach is presented in the search for consensus to overcome them at the micro-level of individual actions of employees (special attention is paid to the agency of museum staff and their “precarious care”), the meso-level of the museum as an organization and the macro-level of legislation and public policy.

Keywords: организация, неформальные практики, institutionalization, институционализация, organization, музей, инклюзия, inclusion, informal practices, agency, агентность, museum sociology, музейная социология, museum, инклюзивные сообщества, inclusive communities, Institutional Resistance, институциональное сопротивление

Publication based on the results of: The diversity of forms, effects and barriers to integration of modern Russian society in synchronic and diachronic dimensions (2025)