Co‐curation: archival interventions and voluntary sector records

Georgina Brewis; Angela Ellis Paine; Irene Hardill; Rose Lindsey; Rob Macmillan

doi:10.1111/area.12768

Co‐curation: archival interventions and voluntary sector records

Georgina Brewis, Angela Ellis Paine, Irene Hardill, Rose Lindsey, Rob Macmillan

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Abstract

There is a growing trend across the social sciences to engage with archives. Within Human Geography this has stimulated a debate about the nature of archives, including moving from considering ‘archive as source’ to ‘archive as subject’. We build on and extend this thinking, suggesting that an even more active appreciation of the dynamic nature of relationships between researchers, owners of records, and archival material is needed. This paper draws on an interdisciplinary study of voluntary action and welfare provision in England in the 1940s and 2010s to highlight how the different iterative processes involved in collaborative archival research are part of what we call co-curation. Co-curation involves the negotiated identification, selection, preparation, and interpretation of archival materials. This has implications for both research processes and outcomes.

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	1-8
Number of pages	8
Journal	Area
Early online date	5 Nov 2021
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1111/area.12768
Publication status	E-pub ahead of print - 5 Nov 2021

Bibliographical note

Funding Information:
Co‐curating private archives demands the allocation of time and resources by the owners of records. Co‐curation includes the identification of questions, partners, and materials and is built on trust and sustained through negotiation. Staff can lack the time to search for records and are unlikely to have professional archiving or records management skills. Co‐curation also involves academics actively intervening in discussions about archive records. It can offer opportunities to researchers for reciprocity, to give back to organisations, the owners of private archives, and for the (re)discovery of the past by organisations. We were fortunate to have both the support from the organisations and the funding from a research grant to support our endeavours.

Publisher Copyright:
The information, practices and views in this article are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the opinion of the Royal Geographical Society (with IBG). © 2021 The Authors. Area published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd on behalf of Royal Geographical Society (with the Institute of British Geographers)

Keywords

archives
Voluntary Sector
voluntary action
co-curation
historical
England
voluntary sector
SPECIAL SECTION
co‐curation

Access to Document

10.1111/area.12768Licence: Creative Commons: Attribution (CC BY)

BrewisG2021CocuraFinal published version, 458 KBLicence: Creative Commons: Attribution (CC BY)

Discourses of Voluntary Action at two 'Transformational Moments' of the Welfare State, the 1940s and 2010s (ES/N018249/1)
Ellis Paine, A. (Principal Investigator)
Economic & Social Research Council
1/07/17 → 30/11/20
Project: Research Councils

Cite this

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title = "Co‐curation: archival interventions and voluntary sector records",

abstract = "There is a growing trend across the social sciences to engage with archives. Within Human Geography this has stimulated a debate about the nature of archives, including moving from considering {\textquoteleft}archive as source{\textquoteright} to {\textquoteleft}archive as subject{\textquoteright}. We build on and extend this thinking, suggesting that an even more active appreciation of the dynamic nature of relationships between researchers, owners of records, and archival material is needed. This paper draws on an interdisciplinary study of voluntary action and welfare provision in England in the 1940s and 2010s to highlight how the different iterative processes involved in collaborative archival research are part of what we call co-curation. Co-curation involves the negotiated identification, selection, preparation, and interpretation of archival materials. This has implications for both research processes and outcomes. ",

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note = "Funding Information: Co‐curating private archives demands the allocation of time and resources by the owners of records. Co‐curation includes the identification of questions, partners, and materials and is built on trust and sustained through negotiation. Staff can lack the time to search for records and are unlikely to have professional archiving or records management skills. Co‐curation also involves academics actively intervening in discussions about archive records. It can offer opportunities to researchers for reciprocity, to give back to organisations, the owners of private archives, and for the (re)discovery of the past by organisations. We were fortunate to have both the support from the organisations and the funding from a research grant to support our endeavours. Publisher Copyright: The information, practices and views in this article are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the opinion of the Royal Geographical Society (with IBG). {\textcopyright} 2021 The Authors. Area published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd on behalf of Royal Geographical Society (with the Institute of British Geographers)",

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Co‐curation: archival interventions and voluntary sector records

Abstract

Bibliographical note

Keywords

Access to Document

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Projects

Discourses of Voluntary Action at two 'Transformational Moments' of the Welfare State, the 1940s and 2010s (ES/N018249/1)

Cite this