Rio de Janeiro’s Museu da Vida and its publics: reflections on influence zone and the social role of a science museum

Abstract

this paper we set out to define the zone of influence of Rio de Janeiro’s Museu da Vida (“Museum of Life”), that is, the areas of that municipality where most of its visitors come from and whose population would be the basis for the survey sampling. We are thus able to make a sociodemographic analysis of this public and to point out its relevant characteristics. This definition of the zone of influence within the city brought together concepts of territory and the accumulated knowledge about where the visitors to Museu da Vida come from. Such zone was defined as a continuous area of Rio de Janeiro covering the Zona Central, Grande Tijuca, Zona Norte and Grande Jacarepaguá. In this area, 1296 people answered a questionnaire, of which 13% had already visited Museu da Vida. In contrast to those who had never visited the museum, the audience that had already done so was relatively young. We found that there was a discrete majority of women and that the income was well distributed compared with that of the local sociodemographics, but the level of education was higher than average. By means of that survey, we also sought to look into cultural habits related to the search for information on science and technology during childhood; into the visitors’ perception about the influence of their visit to the museum; into their interest in, knowledge of and engagement with science and technology topics and into the way they deal with fake news in science. This work allowed us to take a more systemic view on the role of a science museum in a region with a very low supply of science and culture equipment.