objectsistituzioni

Objectsistituzioni is a term used to describe the study of the reciprocal relationship between objects and the institutions that create, regulate, store, or deploy them. It treats objects not merely as items but as social actors embedded in organizational practices, policy regimes, and cultural norms. The concept emphasizes how institutions shape the production, categorization, circulation, and governance of objects, and how objects, in turn, influence institutional workflows, legitimacy, and memory.

The field examines material culture within settings such as museums, archives, libraries, corporations, government agencies, and everyday infrastructures. Key themes include provenance and ownership, standardization and interoperability, access and control, curation and preservation, legal and ethical frameworks for stewardship, and the lifecycle of objects from creation to disposal. Digital objects add dimensions related to metadata, data governance, immutability, and long-term accessibility.

Methodologically, objectsistituzioni draws on anthropology, sociology, information science, museology, and law, employing ethnographic observation, archival analysis, provenance research, ontology modeling, and policy analysis. By analyzing case studies—such as museum collection policies, archival appraisal, or regulatory regimes for cultural property—the field seeks to illuminate how institutions design, adopt, and adapt object-related practices over time.

See also: object ontology, material culture studies, governance of information, cultural heritage law, provenance research.