tegenstanderstudie
Tegenstanderstudie, or object studies, is a research approach that treats objects as central sources of knowledge about past and present societies. It looks at the materiality of items, their production, use, exchange, and meanings, as well as the networks and practices that attach significance to them. The field is interdisciplinary, spanning art history, archaeology, anthropology, museum studies, and design history. Central to tegenstanderstudie is the idea that objects carry social life and are not passive artefacts; thus scholars analyze object biographies, circulation, and contexts of display and use.
Methods include careful description of material attributes, provenance research, archival sources, ethnographic or user studies about
Applications include curatorial practice, heritage management, and design research, where understanding an object's life helps interpret
In Dutch scholarship, tegenstanderstudie is used to describe such object-centered analyses and is related to broader