Urgent Archives: Enacting Liberatory Memory Work

This book explores how dominant western archival theories and practices are oppressive and proposes community archives as a liberatory alternative. It emphasizes the role of minoritized communities in activating records to build solidarities, challenge linear progress narratives, and disrupt cycles of oppression. It also explores the temporal, representational, and material aspects of liberatory memory work.

Format: Paperback / softback
Length: 130 pages
Publication date: 09 January 2023
Publisher: Taylor & Francis Ltd

This book delves into the oppressive nature of dominant Western archival theories and practices, while also exploring the radical politics of community archives to envision new liberatory theories and practices. It examines how members of marginalized communities utilize records to foster solidarity both within and across communities, challenge linear progress narratives, and disrupt cycles of oppression. Caswell delves into the temporal, representational, and material aspects of liberatory memory work, arguing that archival disruptions should focus on the liberatory affects and effects of memory work in the present rather than solely on the past or the future.

Furthermore, the book advocates for the recognition of community archives as sites of resistance and empowerment, highlighting their role in challenging the power structures that perpetuate inequality and discrimination. It encourages readers to engage with community archives as active participants in the struggle for social justice and equality.

Weight: 263g
Dimension: 234 x 156 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9781032000275