Social justice impact of archives: a preliminary investigation

This article reports the first stage of a research collaboration that is elaborating the multiple relationships between archives and social justice. Specifically, it is developing narrative frameworks and diagrammatic representations to identify, understand, illustrate, and deploy the actual and potential social justice impact of archives, archivists, and archival repositories. A discussion of the broader and historical social justice landscape culminates with a working conceptualization-framework of social justice followed by an examination of the many methods and modes by which social justice can be an object of research. This is followed by an examination of the rising presence of social justice as an explicit and accelerating concern in four key English language archival journals before offering a working articulation and approach to an archival—social justice framework. A discussion of understanding and measuring impact, with specific reference to the framework of impact that we have chosen to deploy, culminates with an analysis of the social justice impact of archives as evidenced through two exemplary case studies. This is followed by a summation of key findings and a discussion of future plans to expand this research. The overall objective of these efforts is targeted toward elucidating how archives can be cast as having both positive and negative social justice consequences and demonstrating how archival work can serve social justice goals.     

Factors influencing the integration of digital archival resources: a constructivist grounded theory approach

This paper discusses the factors influencing the integration of digital archival resources in China. The integration of digital archival resources as discussed in this article refers to the way in which information contained within dispersed digital archives within a country, or a specific area such as a province, city or county, can be successfully integrated, classified and restructured around specific topics and actual needs in order to realise optimal social sharing and utilisation of digital archival resources. There is little Chinese published research regarding what factors influence the integration of digital archival resources. This article, therefore, uses Charmaz’s Constructivist Grounded Theory approach and draws forth the theory that archivists’ cognition on the integration of digital archival resources and the context (which consists of the organisational culture of archives, archives management systems, and the laws and regulations on archives disclosure), influence the integration of digital archival resources, and these factors interact with each other. This theory can also be illustrated by the model: cognition–context–action. This research can provide some recommendations for the promotion and sustainable development of the integration of digital archival resources in China as well as other countries.     

Culture and evidence: or what good are the archives? Archives and archivists in twentieth century England

Archives have the potential to change people’s lives. They are created to enable the conduct of business and accountability, but they also support a democratic society’s expectations for transparency and the protection of rights, they underpin citizen’s rights and are the raw material of our history and memory. This paper examines these issues in the context of the historical development of archives and archivists in twentieth century England. The research lays the foundations for understanding how and why the modern archives and records management profession developed in England. This paper will investigate the historical conflict (or is it a continuum?) between archives as culture and as evidence. The story identifies and highlights the contributions made by many fascinating individuals who established archives services and professional practice in England in the twentieth century. They shaped the archive in a very real way, and their individual enthusiasms, interests and understandings set the course of the English archival profession. To a great extent, it was these individuals, rather than government or legislation, that set the boundaries of English archives, they decided what was included (acquired) and what was not (of archival value.) The conclusion will consider the more fundamental questions: what are archives and what are they for, or perhaps, ‘what good are the archives’?     

Toward an understanding of archives as a feature of collective memory

This paper reviews important aspects of the literature on collective memory, how some of these concerns have been expressed in archives, and contemplates how these issues relate to the politically transformative South African post-apartheid context. It highlights the erosion of boundaries between archives, museums, and other less-institutionalized memory projects in post-apartheid South Africa. It notes ways in which archival activity is taking place outside of traditional archives, as part of a changing and evolving memory landscape. It acknowledges the significant gaps in the written record that are a result of apartheid practices and cites different approaches that were overlooked by apartheid??s official archival systems. This paper offers a way of contemplating the ??social constructedness?? of collective memory and the social and political dimensions of archives.     

Framing photographs,denying archives: the difficulty of focusing on archival photographs

This article pursues the varying understandings of the photograph in archival literature. An in-depth review of the scholarship uncovers several possible reasons why archivists and those writing about photographic archives apparently continue to struggle with the photograph, including: the sheer difficulty that photographs as an elusive medium present; past debates about photography in art history, history, and archival literature; and the challenges that the photograph as an evasive document presents to the contradictory nature of archives themselves and to conceptions of archival science. Having evolved from an understanding of photographs that conflated content with meaning to postmodernist notions of contingent and plural meanings in which photographs participate, archival writings on the photograph hold promise as they begin to tread the waters that Schwartz charted in the last 15 years. This paper follows that historical progression in order to trace the discourse on photographic archives that has emerged over the past three decades.

国外档案多元论的发展及其启示

21世纪以来,档案多元论逐渐走入档案界的视野。西方后现代主义思潮为档案多元现象及档案多元论研究提供了哲学和方法论指导。以美国为首的欧美国家历史、文化、社会学研究的开展对档案工作提出新要求,直接推动档案多元论观点的形成和发展。当前,国外档案多元论研究的主题包括：档案多元论视域下档案馆业务拓展、电子文件管理和长期保存、社会记忆及非主流社会群体文化构建、全球档案研究与教育活动的发展。档案多元论对我国档案馆业务工作革新、少数民族档案资源的保存与开发、档案学研究活动的多元化与社会化发展、档案教育及人才培养模式创新具有重要的启示意义。     

打造“时光机器”：城市逆向记忆工程理论与实践初探

应用历史地理信息系统、知识图谱、虚拟现实等多种现代信息技术进行城市历史时空的逆向建模和回溯是推进档案资源深度开发、智能化档案数据服务和智慧城市建设的多重需要。本文在介绍欧盟“时光机”等城市时空回溯类数字人文项目的基础上,综合“城市记忆工程”和“逆向工程”理念,提出了具有中国特色的“城市逆向记忆工程”概念并对其学术内涵、理论基础、实践策略等问题进行了系统剖析。“城市逆向记忆工程”是城市档案管理部门及公共文化机构以收藏和保存的历史档案文献为依据,通过语义数据反向推导和关联融合,在网络空间重构城市空间格局,模拟社会活动过程,构建城市时空本体数据集,并通过多种形式呈现和利用的过程,是我国城市档案信息化建设的前沿领域,具有城市历史文化传承和人工智能数据基础设施建设的双重战略价值。     

档案研究中"过程说"的理论初探—以云南陆军讲武堂的历史和档案文献研究为例

文章以云南陆军讲武堂的历史和档案文献研究为例,对档案研究中的"过程说"进行阐释。从档案是历史存在过程的客观呈现形式、档案文本的解读与利用须从历史存在具有的过程性角度进行及档案与历史存在具有"过程"统一性三个角度,对"过程说"适用于档案研究的基础进行了分析。文章认为以"过程说"作为档案研究的方法,不仅能够为档案的整理工作提供指导,也能够通过对历史存在时间和空间及档案形成范围的界定,在一定程度上控制档案的"泛化",并促进档案文献体系的完善。     

档案学形成时期的外来影响探究

档案学概念的出现意味着档案学术研究开始进入到科学发展的阶段。但该词并非是滕固最先在中国使用。实际上,档案学一词在中国的早期应用有着深刻的背景,并带有国外影响的影子。在文书档案改革运动、明清档案整理和档案教育开展中,都存在着国外学术思想和理论的借鉴与融合现象。基于这种与生俱来的国外影响现象,档案界不仅要重视国内外学术的交流和互动,而且更需加强国际档案学的建设,才能更好的发展档案学。     

企业档案管理讲义的民国版——陆时万的《工商档案管理学》及其档案思想

《工商档案管理学》蕴含着陆时万系统而丰富的档案思想,如关于企业档案及其管理的概念认知、价值认识、职能设计等方面的思想。作为时代的产物,《工商档案管理学》及其档案思想固然存在一定的局限性,但此种对工商领域档案管理的探究拓宽了近代档案管理工作与研究的范围,且在工商档案管理工作界定中展现出超前的服务意识。给予该讲义必要的关注和解读,对全面把握近代档案思想遗产,深入研究企业档案管理的历史传统,有着重要的意义。     

略论云南少数民族历史档案数字化建设活态研究

记忆资源的整合近年来引起众多学者的关注,为了解当下研究现状,采用文献研究法分别从异构记忆资源整合对象、整合基础、整合思路与整合技术四个方面对异构记忆资源整合的研究现状进行系统梳理、归纳,并基于记忆资源整合建设现状思考剖析“数字记忆”资源建设中存在的问题,提出个人观点,以求为推动研究和实践进一步发展提供参考。     

“互联网+”时代档案潜在用户转化的思考

“互联网+档案”时代,作为档案事业重要参与主体的档案用户应该受到学术界及实践领域的更多重视。积极推动档案潜在用户的转化是“互联网+”时代特征的要求,也能为增强档案价值的社会认同感、践行档案工作基本原则、寻求档案工作突破口寻找灵感。本文拟从加强档案用户研究与思维创新,推动档案网站服务的个性化、交互性和社会化,共建共享,跨界融合等角度得出自己的思考,以期对档案用户工作及潜在用户的发掘有所启示。     

‘<Emphasis Type="Italic">Arca,archivillo, archivo</Emphasis>’: the keeping,use and status of historical documents about the Spanish <Emphasis Type="Italic">Conquista</Emphasis>

Developing a relativistic concept of the pre-modern archive, this article considers the relationship between knowledge inside and outside the archive to determine how Spain’s historical documents about its new American territories were kept and used. The starting assumption is that collections of documents about the Spanish Conquista circulated among people and were not permanently stored within fixed archival spaces, such as small lockable cases (arcas), private collections of documents (archivillos), or the actual state archives (archivos). This article thus re-evaluates the state of knowledge about the new American territories of Spain and its distribution across various archives and collections. It draws particular attention to the use of historical documents by official chroniclers of Spain and historians of the Conquista of the Spanish Americas.     

档案文献辨伪延展说论析

档案文献辨伪具有明显的重要性和必要性,档案人员参与到档案鉴辩中具有显著的优势,可以发挥更大的作用.鉴别的对象不仅仅只是档案文献本身,而且还要注重它们之间的历史联系.关于辨伪的方法,在了解作伪方法基础上,既要沿用传统的文献辨伪方法,又要采用新技术和新设备,广泛借鉴相关领域的方法.     

从馆藏档案利用看档案的本质属性

档案具有史料价值和历史研究价值,笔者通过对利用者利用馆藏档案目的的分析,从宣传教育、解决待遇、档案证明、编史修志、工作查考、学术研究几方面进一步揭示了档案的原始记录性、真实性、客观性及历史再现性等属性。     

基于新疆民族地区稳定发展的少数民族档案发掘利用研究

本文认为新疆少数民族档案记录了丰富的各民族团结发展的重要史实,对其档案资源的发掘有利于维护新疆民族地区的民族团结与稳定发展。本文阐述少数民族档案对新疆稳定发展的现实作用,及其开发状况、存在问题,以及对民族地区少数民族档案资源发掘利用的借鉴与启示。     

Neutrality, social justice and the obligations of archival education and educators in the twenty-first century

Codes of ethics around the globe exhort archivists to neutrality so that they and their repositories will be trusted by records creators, the general public, and posterity to be impartial in their actions. However, archival neutrality is increasingly viewed as a controversial stance for a profession that is situated in the midst of the politics of memory. Archival educators have been prominent among those calling for the profession to address more directly the cultural and ethical dimensions of the role played by archives and records in society. This paper contemplates how archival neutrality and social justice concerns can surface within the context of archival education. Drawing upon experiences of the Department of Information Studies at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), it suggests pedagogical approaches for raising and addressing ethics and diversity issues within a social justice framework, and for encouraging students, as future practitioners and scholars, to engage critically, reflexively, and meaningfully with these issues in ways that support the public trust in archives and the archival profession.     

A marshall in love. Remembering and forgetting queer pasts in the Finnish archives

This article analyses the formation of the queer archives in Finland. In Finland, the close links between the civil society and the state affect the archiving of social movements’ history. One of the publicly funded private central archives, the Labour Archives (Työväen Arkisto), has taken responsibility of preserving the documents of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) past. This includes documents of activism and associations as well as personal archives and narratives. The article presents the position of the Finnish LGBT collection within the Finnish archival sector and evaluates it in the light of archival theory. The Finnish model of queer archives offers an example of preserving queer pasts in a social history archive that is neither strictly a mainstream archival institution nor an independent activist archive. The article describes the development of queer history and the need to find sources telling about queer lives and discusses the role of the archival institutions and archival science in remembering and forgetting queer pasts. The article reflects also how the archival policies and archival practices affect which pasts are officially remembered and which are forgotten.     

Break the rules,save the records: human rights archives and the search for justice in East Timor

How do distinctive historical experiences and political regimes shape human rights archives? How do those archives and those experiences in turn influence the way painful pasts are remembered or forgotten? And what can historical accounts tell us about the wisdom of prevailing norms and practices regarding the management and control of human rights records? This paper explores these questions through a close analysis of the history and politics of the principal archive documenting human rights abuse in East Timor. It underscores the work of archival studies scholars who argue that human rights archives are always in some degree shaped by the historical and political context in which they emerge and that conflicts over matters of content, mandate, and rules of access are virtually inevitable. Noting that such conflicts typically pit political authorities against victims and their advocates, it argues that successful human rights archival programs hinge critically on sensitive historical and political analysis and that, under certain conditions, human rights archivists should play a more active role in facilitating the pursuit of justice for victims of human rights abuse. It also makes the case for a move away from large, state-controlled archives toward multiple, smaller archives with varied mandates. Finally, it proposes the adoption of a new hierarchy of interest in the management of archives; away from the long-accepted principles of national sovereignty and inalienability, and in the direction of access to the survivors of human rights violations and their advocates.