Multi-Method Interdisciplinary Research In Archival Science: The Case of Recordkeeping, Ethics And Law

Abstract

This article describes the issues involved in using a multi-method approach to address multi-faceted interdisciplinary research in archival science. The example chosen to illustrate the multi-method approach is taken from recent research, which explored the recordkeeping-ethics-law nexus from the perspective of communities as social systems, regulatory models for recordkeeping and their continuing application to online records. The methods combined traditional archival and social science research techniques, as well as legal and ethics research tools drawn from law and moral philosophy, together with disciplinary discourse analysis, concept mapping and empirical examples to illustrate the concepts. The example demonstrates that complex research questions that cross disciplinary boundaries need to draw from a number of research paradigms and conceptual understandings, which assist in breaking down the barriers with knowledge domains that have to date, had limited contact with archival science.