Participatory Archives Research Articles

Developing Graduate Curriculum for Digital Language Archive Stewardship

Our interdisciplinary team including information and language scholars and educators and practicing information professionals at University of North Texas (UNT) and Indiana University (IU) is developing an evidence-based practice-oriented online curriculum to train library, archives, and museums (LAM) professionals in the archiving, curation, and ethical dissemination of resources that provide the means to revitalize community memory and language. During this 2-year project, over 30 LAM students will complete the project-developed UNT graduate course INFO 5385 Community Language Archiving and Curation for Information Professionals, and additional estimated 100 students at UNT and IU will complete individual project-developed learning modules integrated into other courses. Development of the learning materials is informed by digital language archive practices, research, and existing training materials for archive depositors. Resulting open-access adaptable learning resources are expected to be widely used by academic programs and educators for training LAM students and by participatory archives as continuing education resources.

Regimes of participation: theorising participatory archives from the outset of archivists' views on archival institutions and user participation in Scandinavia

Introduction: In spite of the prominence of the notion of participatory archives, there is no consensus of what participation entails in archival contexts and a lack of theory to explain the mechanisms underpinning the diversity of views. Method: Norwegian and Swedish archivists were surveyed as a part of the international ALMPUB research project for their views on user participation and how these views relate to their understanding of the role and the raison d’être of archives and archival institutions. The survey findings were used as a basis for theory development. Analysis: The data were analysed using exploratory factor analysis and descriptive statistics. The results of the factor analysis theorised as subject positions relating to views pertaining to archival participation and the societal role of archival institutions. Results: The analysis shows that the professionals’ perceptions of the rationale and impact of participation and the societal role of archives and archival institutions forms clusters were interpreted as relating to regimes of participation. Conclusions: Drawing on the theorising of Boltanski and Thévenot, the alignments of the perceptions to archives’ raisons d’être and archival participation are explained in terms of four regimes of participation: 1) participation as an intrinsically valuable activity; 2) participation as a complement to professional work in the records continuum; 3) professional work as an auxiliary activity to participation of experts; and 4) participation as a means of producing additional value for archival institutions, i.e., arrangements of framing the justification and value of participation in, with and for archival institutions. It is, however, possible to imagine additional regimes that correspond with the social worlds of Boltanski and Thévenot not represented by them, including the inspired (participation as a source of inspiration) and domestic worlds (domiciliary participation), and the world by project (participatory project). The study suggests that inquiring into the justifications and regimes of worth attached to participation helps to refute simplistic assumptions of what participation entails and recognise the variety of participatory engagements and their diverging implications for different types of archival institutions and their diverse stakeholders.

Building a Participatory Archive With an Australian Suburb: Case Study of Canberra’s Biggest Bogan Suburb, Kambah

Participatory appraisal and building archives with communities have been discussed amongst archivists across the world for decades. There is reportage on building community resources for and by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities, but there is less reportage on these endeavours with other communities. This reflection reports on building an archive with the community of Kambah, a suburb with a mixed reputation in the Canberra community.
 A challenge for participatory archives identified through this project was scale – if successful, the volume of content quickly becomes overwhelming. Another challenge is the responsibility that goes with accepting content from contributors. Expectations are set up that the content will be used or shared. And crucially, participation means everyone. Strategies are needed to connect with contributors that go beyond relationships in easy reach for the archivist based on existing connections.
 A final lesson comes from socially engaged art, a practice that focuses on community participation. This calls on the archivist to recognise their standpoint, the worldview they bring. Our sector has recognised that collections and building them is not neutral. For archivists, there remains much to do to work out how to meaningfully share that power and authority as collections are built.

“They care enough to document people's stories”: Using ethnographic methods to understand collection day outreach events in participatory archives

Participatory archive collection day events depend on the involvement of multiple groups of stakeholders who participate in the archives. However, there is little existing research on participatory initiatives that connect institutions to communities beyond literature that focuses on the logistics of such initiatives, making it unclear how archives can best connect to and serve communities through such initiatives. Using ethnographic field data collection and analysis, the role that the in-person collection day event plays in the construction of communities of records and memory in participatory archives was examined. Analysis of ethnographic observation data and semi-structured interviews shows that for participants, a sense of connection to community and to the archives is dependent on the collection day being an in-person outreach event. Findings also show that the event design can make some participants feel welcome while excluding others, possibly limiting the reach of the archives to diverse communities.

FROM “EXHIBITION” TO “LABORATORY”: RETHINKING CURATORIAL PRACTICES THROUGH A DIGITAL EXPERIMENTAL PROJECT. THE CASE STUDY OF #DOLOMITESMUSEUM - LABORATORY OF STORIES

Digital curation is one of the most experimental areas of museum practice introduced by the digital revolution. A whole new generation of cultural experiences are emerging from the interaction with online spaces and social media platforms, encouraging museums to explore new curatorial approaches. In this paper, we will show how a digital experimental project led to the rethinking of the exhibition format into a more collaborative, interdisciplinary and laboratory approach to museum curation. The case study analysed is Laboratory of Stories, a dynamic participatory archive which was co-designed with a vibrant community of heritage professionals, local communities, and lovers of the Dolomites during a three-year project. An evaluation study combining different qualitative and quantitative methods was implemented to explore the nature of this curatorial practice. A series of key findings emerged from the study: the introduction of new narrative styles and interdisciplinary perspectives; the involvement of different communities in the curatorial process; the shift from a tangible, object-based, to a more intangible, open, and dialogic interpretation of heritage and of knowledge making. The findings show how the ‘laboratory’ metaphor can help museums to embrace the challenges of a participatory, post-digital society, suggesting a novel approach where the co-creation of narratives is at the heart of the curatorial practice.

FROM “EXHIBITION” TO “LABORATORY”: RETHINKING CURATORIAL PRACTICES THROUGH A DIGITAL EXPERIMENTAL PROJECT. THE CASE STUDY OF #DOLOMITESMUSEUM - LABORATORY OF STORIES

Digital curation is one of the most experimental areas of museum practice introduced by the digital revolution. A whole new generation of cultural experiences are emerging from the interaction with online spaces and social media platforms, encouraging museums to explore new curatorial approaches. In this paper, we will show how a digital experimental project led to the rethinking of the exhibition format into a more collaborative, interdisciplinary and laboratory approach to museum curation. The case study analysed is Laboratory of Stories, a dynamic participatory archive which was co-designed with a vibrant community of heritage professionals, local communities, and lovers of the Dolomites during a three-year project. An evaluation study combining different qualitative and quantitative methods was implemented to explore the nature of this curatorial practice. A series of key findings emerged from the study: the introduction of new narrative styles and interdisciplinary perspectives; the involvement of different communities in the curatorial process; the shift from a tangible, object-based, to a more intangible, open, and dialogic interpretation of heritage and of knowledge making. The findings show how the ‘laboratory’ metaphor can help museums to embrace the challenges of a participatory, post-digital society, suggesting a novel approach where the co-creation of narratives is at the heart of the curatorial practice.

A Participatory Archives Approach to Fostering Connectivity, Increasing Empathy, and Building Resilience during the COVID-19 Pandemic

This paper explores two pandemic-era projects conducted by the Museum and Archives of North Vancouver (MONOVA) using a participatory archives framework during the COVID-19 pandemic. #NorthVanStories, a rapid-respond social media collecting project, ran from May to September 2020 and received over 200 submissions. #NorthVanStories–Living Histories, a digital video oral history project, ran from summer 2020 to fall 2021 and produced five videos with seven storytellers from diverse and vulnerable communities. This paper discusses the power of collaborative documenting, storytelling, and memory-making to foster connectivity, increase empathy, and build resilience. It highlights the benefits of working collaboratively with organizations and communities; successful approaches to planning and outreach activities; the importance of flexibility and sustainability when working with communities in times of crisis; and how to ensure the future relevance of archives by being responsive to contemporary events and community interests.

Symbiosis or friction: Understanding participant motivations for information sharing and institutional goals in participatory archive initiatives

There is no participatory archive without an individual participant’s willingness to share their archival records and relevant background information about their records. Yet, information sharing as it comes to archives is not centered or adequately explored in work on participatory archive initiatives—leaving questions about participant motivations and how these motivations line up with the archive’s goals. Through a combination of primary source data analysis and ethnographic field data collection and analysis, this study aims to close that knowledge gap. The ties between archival institutions and archival record creators in participatory archives are investigated in order to understand what motivations for information sharing participants bring to participatory archives and how these correspond to the goals of archival institutions which engage with participatory initiatives. Findings show that key actors in participatory archives, the participants who contribute their stories and records to the archive, are largely driven by self-fulfillment when contributing to the archives. Meanwhile, goals from institutional archives include both inclusive community-building and collection-building. While participant motivations and institutional goals can lead to moments of friction between archives and participants, they can also be symbiotic foundations of participatory archive initiatives.

Documenting Events in Times of Crisis

Traditional Thai archival practice, which consists of documenting events and ceremonies, can be traced to the activities of royal scribes in past centuries. Today, this practice is carried out by national archivists, far removed from people’s daily lives. However, current digital transformations and participatory, networked culture are making documentation more relevant now than in the past – and to virtually everyone.
 
 Focusing on records from times of historic emergencies, this article aims to understand Thai documentation behaviour from a socio-cultural perspective, with an eye toward considering how to adjust traditional archival practice to the contemporary Thai context. Archival sources documenting two crises – the Franco-Siamese military conflict of 1893 and a catastrophic tropical storm in southern Thailand in 1962 – are compared with new social media–based documentation consisting of posts, comments, and other activity during the cave rescue incident in northern Thailand in 2018. This comparison is complemented by insights from national archivists and other documentation experts regarding their experiences and their thoughts on the future of Thai archival practice.
 
 Together, this comparison and these insights show that Thai documentation retained some of its original principles and functions in Thai society when it moved into a digital landscape, but there is still room for it to become more engaging and, in some ways, better suited to common understandings of archives as a “hall of fame.” This article suggests that Thai archivists should embrace a participatory archives model in which professional archivists remain essential but shift their focus from recording and guarding information to fostering the reliability and sustainability of documentation.

Diasporic Archives and Hauntological Accretions

Centering on two recent participatory archive projects, Jacqueline Hoàng Nguyễn’s The Making of An Archive (2014-present), and Regent Park Film Festival’s Home Made Visible (2017-2019), this essay examines how diasporic archives “densify” authoritative records, and allow us to think generatively about archival movements and accretions. Both projects gathered and digitised archives from members of diasporic and racialised communities. Through public calls and workshops soliciting amateur archivists’ personal and familial still and moving image troves, these projects prioritised excavating and inscribing quotidian and ephemeral records as a response to Canadian multiculturalism’s imposed silences. The essay approaches diaspora – and diasporic archives – not (just) through rubrics of loss and obsolescence, but through the concept of hauntological thickening, arguing that these two projects intervene on authoritative and singular archival narratives by densifying the latter with occluded histories, affects, and textural traces of transfer. It also examines how quotidian visual records offer hauntological refractions of official narratives, and become vehicles for imbrications of personal, familial, and national histories and discourses. Finally, the essay concludes with an exploration of how the archives engage audiences through affective and sensorial registers.

Introduction: Critical Collecting & Participatory Archiving: Alternative Visions for Managing Cultural Resources between Global South and North

Introduction: Critical Collecting & Participatory Archiving: Alternative Visions for Managing Cultural Resources between Global South and North

Introduction: Critical Collecting & Participatory Archiving: Alternative Visions for Managing Cultural Resources between Global South and North

Introduction: Critical Collecting & Participatory Archiving: Alternative Visions for Managing Cultural Resources between Global South and North

Applying Effective Data Modelling Approaches for the Creation of a Participatory Archive Platform

Applying Effective Data Modelling Approaches for the Creation of a Participatory Archive Platform

Archives, Recordkeeping, and Social Justice

Archives, Recordkeeping, and Social Justice

Proposed independent organisational structure for memory institutions in Zimbabwe and South Africa

PurposeThe idea of convergence of cultural institutions, especially the libraries, archives and museums (LAMS) to operate as one, has a long theoretical history which unfortunately has not been translated into practice. This subject has been discussed by a number of scholars but the implementation has just remained theoretical with only a few countries practically adopting such an organisational structure. In Africa, this concept of LAMS is yet to gain traction. Therefore, the purpose of this paper is aimed at proposing such LAMS structures for African nations, especially in Zimbabwe and South Africa considering the emergence of community “archives” which have blurred further the distinction between museology, archiving and librarianship. The motivation in advocating for the adoption of LAMS is also driven by the theory behind participatory archives which thrive on the advanced use of internet including social media platforms that can make it possible to have one-stop virtual archive on the cloud that also incorporates museums and libraries.Design/methodology/approachThis is a concept paper which reviewed the literature on national and community archives in Zimbabwe and South Africa which were purposively selected because of their long history in archiving. This was done to come up with a proposed “independent” national heritage organisational structure. “Independent” structure because this paper was based on the assumption that the independence of decision-making in national archival structures in Zimbabwe and South Africa is compromised and biased towards the ethos of political parties’ ruling governments.FindingsProposed integrated framework for community archives into the sustainable national archival system which also incorporates the role that can be played by universities. The framework is likely to be feasible and of benefit in the countries that are struggling to have national mainstream independent archives which are just not paying allegiance to those who are in power.Originality/valueThis study is unique in the sense that it mixes LAMS and the concept of independent archival structure in a regional comparative nature that involves Zimbabwe and South Africa.

Crafting New Narratives of Diasporic Resistance with Indo-Caribbean Women and Gender-Expansive People across Generations

This study used participatory oral history and digital archiving to explore two interrelated questions: How do Indo-Caribbean women and gender-expansive people across generations experience processes of storytelling? What are the challenges and possibilities of oral history and digital archiving for constructing alternative histories and genealogies of resistance? In the first phase of the study, twelve Indo-Caribbean women and gender-expansive people across generations participated in an oral history workshop where they were introduced to oral history methods, co-created an interview guide, conducted oral history interviews of one another, and engaged in collective reflection about processes of storytelling. In the second phase, four co-authors of a community-owned digital archive participated in semi-structured interviews about their work to craft new narratives of diasporic resistance rooted in the everyday stories of Indo-Caribbean women and gender-expansive people. In this paper, I analyze how Indo-Caribbean women and gender-expansive people practice resistance by breaking silences in their communities around gender-based oppression, shift norms through producing analyses of their own stories, and reshape community narratives. Furthermore, I explore how oral history participants and co-authors of a digital archive understand the risks associated with sharing stories, raising the ethical dilemmas associated with conceptualizing storytelling as purely liberatory.

Redrawing historical weather data and participatory archives for the future

Redrawing historical weather data and participatory archives for the future

Expanding Dance Archives: Access, Legibility, and Archival Participation

The ample attention the archivisation of dance has received in recent years primarily focused on new archival formats that often rely on digital technologies or which relocate the archive into choreography and the dancing body. Even though these more experimental approaches are vital in broaching new avenues for dance archivisation, this article takes a step back by considering how existing archival structures can be expanded in order to increase both the accessibility and legibility of archive materials. Interweaving a personal account of doing archival research with a discussion of recent debates within both dance studies and archival science, the aim is to set up an interdisciplinary dialogue between two domains that have been operating in a remarkably isolated manner despite their mutual interests. Taking my cue from how the notion of ‘participatory archives’ is gaining prominence in archival practice and scholarship, I argue that enlarging the input of archival information may lead to a greater output with regard to both archival research and community outreach.

Review of Edward Benoit III and Alexandra Eveleigh, eds. Participatory Archives: Theory and Practice.

Review of Edward Benoit III and Alexandra Eveleigh, eds. Participatory Archives: Theory and Practice.

<em>Participatory Archives: Theory and Practice</em>. Edward Benoit, III and Alexandra Eveleigh, eds.

The archival community continues to expand its reliance on digital tools to yield dynamic user engagement and increased access to collections. Editors Edward Benoit, III and Alexandra Eveleigh posit that the advancement of web technology during the last two decades increased the scope and impact of participatory archives. Benoit, currently a professor at the School of Library & Information Science at Louisiana State University, is the founder of the Virtual Footlocker Project, focusing on digital tools for soldiers to document their military experience. Eveleigh, Collections Information Manager at the Wellcome Collection, focuses her research on digital humanities and the impact of user participation.