Autonomous archives

Bibliographic Data

ID5700596
AuthorsShaunna Moore (corresponding author), Susan Pell (Simon Fraser University)
Year2010
Volume16
Issue4-5
Pages255-268
Publication date2010-07-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueInternational Journal of Heritage Studies (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1352-7258 • E-ISSN: 1470-3610
PublisherInforma UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/13527251003775513
OpenAlexW4253584138
LanguageEN
Citations received17
References cited23

By providing evidence for the creation and continuation of claims to identities and places, archives facilitate the participation of multiple publics in dominant cultural and political domains. In the context of fluctuating relations between competing and unequal publics in contested narratives and spaces, the means to control representations of documents determines the ways in which groups are able to participate in the present and influence the future. While government archives have attempted to include and incorporate diverse histories, many social justice organisations and social movements have chosen to operate outside of this framework by preserving the records of their own activities. This article theorises a concept of ‘autonomous archives’ as a crucial component of democratic heritage practices. It develops this notion through an exploration of archives that have emerged within marginalised publics in Vancouver, Canada: the Union of British Columbia Indian Chiefs Archives, the Hope in Shadows Archive, and Friends of the Woodward's Squat Archive. Each of these archives point to the intersecting concerns of social identity, claims to place, and the political stakes of representation within heterogeneous and unequal publics. They also suggest the significance of archives in the formation of publics, within the broader context of cultural memory and democratic participation

Aesthetics · Cultural heritage · Democracy · Media studies · Narrative · Political science · Politics · Public relations · Publics · Sociology · Digital and Traditional Archives Management · History · Law · Memory, Trauma, and Commemoration · Oral History, Memory, Narrative Analysis

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