This thesis questions the current working practices of French eco-museums and museums of society concerning the collection of contemporary objects. The question of « contemporaneity » is undergoing a revival today in museology, attacking the flank of criticism from the field of cultural politics. In addition, the first part of this thesis involves a theoretical questioning of the method of research itself. It questions the paradoxical position of French ethnographic museums, with the aim of examining the new direction that their collections are taking, focusing on the « contemporary ». The second part of this thesis traces the evolution of the tendancies, methods and aims of museum acquisition policies. The body of research analyses the current practices in the collection of pieces by three museums which are fundamentally different in size, geographical presence and assignation/mission : the Musée des Civilisations de l’Europe et de la Méditerranée (MUCEM) in Marseille, the Écomusée du Val de Bièvre in Fresnes (Val de Marne) and the museum of the town of Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines (Yvelines). Finally the third part of this thesis presents the results of an experimantal study into the museum space. Firstly by studying the direction of contemporaneity in the museum of society by way of the representational value of pieces retained in the collection. Further, in presenting the outcome of collecting contemporary pieces, as much as a result of deliberate seeking out by the museum as about the status of the piece itself. These two subjects are considered in the framework of a « system of significance » which allows a museum to build up knowledge and a familiarity with contemporary pieces, with the concepts of « otherness », « written record », « selection », « recollection » and « heritage » providing a starting point.
