An Ethic of Care: Interrogating the Need for Care in the Archives

Percephone Miller

doi:10.33137/ijournal.v6i2.36454

Abstract

Using a mixture of personal experience and frameworks presented by Caswell and Cifor (2016), this essay explores the tangible ways that archival spaces can and should account for the affective responses of their user groups. Drawing on a case study at Algoma University, care work is demonstrated to be an imperative element for just, engaged, and enriched archival service.

Highlights

What is an ethic of care within the archival world? In essence, this is a prioritization of the user needs not on the logistical, schematic level, but on a deeply emotional one
What if these codes could function as a more robust prompt for reflection and cultivation of the radical empathy suggested by Caswell, Cifor, and others? Wallace (2010) goes on to assert that codes can be extremely limiting given that “ethical meaning cannot be reduced to a solitary, self-sufficient, unambiguous, authoritative statement that pre-judges action and leaves no place for consideration of multiple motivations or outcomes or points of view” (Wallace, p. 178)
When orienting archives to a care ethic, this means that broad strokes approaches to ethical professionalism will never be sufficient on their own, rather they serve as a baseline on which an archivist must expand and apply notions of radical empathy, and ever evolving sensitivity in order to take responsibility for the impact of the records they keep and the users they serve

Summary

Introduction

What is an ethic of care within the archival world? In essence, this is a prioritization of the user needs not on the logistical, schematic level, but on a deeply emotional one. While ethical codes and standards are attached to governing institutions and bodies within the archival world, are they sufficient principles to guide archivist, records managers, and information professionals through the tumultuous, complex, and emotionally involved event of bearing witness to emotional reactions and needs?

Results

Conclusion