Andrew, F., Stevens, M. and Shepherd, E. (2009). “Whose Memories, Whose Archives? Independent Community Archives, Autonomy and the Mainstream.” Archival Science 9 (1): 71. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10502-009-9105-2.
Andrew Flinn is associated with the Department of Information Studies from the University College of London. Some of Dr. Flinn’s interests include archives and memories, democratizing archival practices, and social justice. Mary Stevens is from the Department of Information Studies at the University College London. Elizabeth Shepherd is from the Department of Information Studies at the University College London. Dr. Shepherd is a Professor of Archives and Records Management. Dr.
The Archival Science International Journal on Recorded Information to promote archival science as a discipline. It methodologically aims to be integrated, interdisciplinary, and intercultural.
While outlining the goals and impacts that community archives organize around, the text argues crucial parts of community archives involve the personal dimensions that center the construction and purpose of developing a community archive, autonomy/independence, ownership, and sustainability. Personal dimensions refer to the diverse stakeholders involved in the curation and curation of a community archive. Autonomy, ownership, and sustainability refers to the desire for the archive to adapt to address new contexts and issues.
Examples are drawn from a variety of community archives operating in London. Specifically the Future Histories, the Migrant and Refugee Communities Forum, rukus!, and the visual archive of Moroccan heritage in the UK and Eastside Community Heritage. Although, the study was ongoing at the time of publishing the article, the authors describe using open participatory method, case studies, and participatory research.
A quote I found exemplary was “A community’s custody over its archives and cultural heritage means power over what is to be preserved and what is to be destroyed, how it is to be described and on what terms it is to be accessed” (83).
This text suggests for my own work to identify and engage in the communities concerned with privacy rights. Prior to this text, my work was mainly focused on the actions and voices of mainstream government institutions and private advertising organizations.
The text builds on community archives by researching the process by which they seek empowerment and social change (84).
This article discusses the concept and application of community archives. Community archives are established with skepticism of mainstream archival practices such as those made by heritage organizations addressing the power of erasure. The author explores the impacts of community archives and their relationship with mainstream archives. Community archives often form with agendas that are political and/or activist. These independent archival practices often seek to “redress or rebalance” the “history of a place, occupation, or interest” (74).
