Singulières archives

Archives, although fundamental to historical research, are rarely appreciated in terms of their place in epistemology. The concept of «archive»-usually given in the singular-has, however, been treated by several philosophers, including most recently Paul Ric?ur. This paper focuses on Ric?ur's latest work,La Mémoire, l'histoire, l'oubli, to analyse Ric?ur's use of the term «archive» and its resonances with the work of Michel Foucault and Michel de Certeau. It investigates, as well, how the concept of archive, closely linked to that of witnessing or testimony, presents certain difficulties from the vantage point of historical epistemology, and proposes another use of the term, one involving greater attention to the historicity and materiality of the «archive» in the interests of a more textual and hermeneutic interpretation.     

Sustaining popular music’s material culture in community archives and museums

This article examines the challenges of sustainability faced by community archives and museums that are concerned with the preservation and display of the material culture of popular music’s recent past. The sustainability of grassroots sites of popular music heritage is of great concern due to their role in making accessible cultural artefacts that have limited representation in the collections of more prestigious institutions. Drawing on three sites that have ceased operation – Jazz Museum Bix Eiben Hamburg, Mutant Sounds and Holy Warbles – the article highlights difficulties faced by the founders and volunteers of physical and online archives in sustaining their ‘do-it-yourself’ heritage practices in the medium- to long-term.     

“An Adamless Eden” in Ingonish: what Cape Breton's archives reveal

This essay reads the archived life of a Sydney-based woman - Ella Liscombe (1902–69) - as it was recorded in her diaries, notebooks, and especially her photograph album of a 1927 camping excursion to Ingonish, Cape Breton Island. This album features pictures of women in "cross-dress," and the writings that gloss these camping records express Ella Liscombe’s erotic same-sex feelings about her female companions. As this essay explores Liscombe’s sartorial and emotional aesthetics, it also makes distinctions between "mannish" behaviour and "boyish" performance/costume, ultimately suggesting that Ella and her friends indulged in "twilight moments" to escape the strictures of domestic femininity.     

Running with the ball? Making a play for sport heritage archives in Higher Education contexts

For considerable time, academia (in particular, the Humanities) has been in an intellectual, economic and pragmatic par des deux with the culture and arts sector (in this case, heritage, museums and archives). In many ways, given their respective pursuits of scientific enquiry and learning, valuable contribution to a knowledge economy, commitment to public enlightenment, and exploration of critical and creative endeavour, a relationship between the sectors makes sense. Unity notwithstanding, the relationships have become increasingly now influenced by (en)forced contextual constraints (e.g. government policy development and intervention, neoliberal market forces, structural and ideological shifts in funding acquisition and allocation, patronage changes and demands, and/or individual political priorities). Drawing on education and heritage scholarship, and theoretical frameworks of sport culture spaces, this paper examines efforts undertaken at one specific Higher Education establishment in the United Kingdom in which institutional agendas (vis-à-vis historical and cultural foci, encouraging ‘impactful’ academic activity, brand exposure, economic efficiency, and community engagement) have contoured, and become entwined with, an embryonic sport heritage and archive project. Recalling similar arrangements elsewhere, the aim of this case study is to explore how the wider education and cultural policy context have precipitated an increasingly symbiotic and dependent relationship between university and cultural/arts initiatives. The paper considers how the impetus to develop a sports-based (basketball) heritage archive and study centre reflects the current fragilities of the two sectors, yet, concomitantly, reveals the potentials that might be developed from fostering greater intellectual and pragmatic alliances. The paper concludes by advocating the practical, political and ideological usefulness of network formation, sustainability measures and continued cross-sector dialogue.     

Onze thèses sur les archives de la recherche pour une nouvelle politique patrimoniale et scientifique

Abstracting the main content of a recent report on the bad state of the archives of scientific research, this paper puts forward eleven thesis likely to feed, in this time of numeric transition to a new documentary regime and to a new patrimonial policy. The recent numeric conditions impose to set new archival pratices, more proactive, anticipative and prospective. Archives of scientific research must be thought in a double memorial and scientific dimension, and not only as a patrimonial or historical one.     

Opencast mines in South Brandenburg (Germany)—archives of Late Quaternary landscape development and human-induced land use changes

This study outlines the opportunities for geoarchaeological research in active opencast lignite mines in southern Brandenburg (Germany). Studies on extensive outcrops that address both archaeology and soil geomorphology, combined with a geographical information system (GIS) approach, provide unique insights into human-induced environmental changes in Lower Lusatia and generally improve our understanding of landscape dynamics. We present the most recent results from three case studies and review important findings from the last several years. Studies conducted in opencast mines of Cottbus-Nord and Jänschwalde focus on (i) Late Quaternary geomorphodynamics and soil development and (ii) past land use and the legacy of agriculture and woodland use. Our results are similar to those in other regions in Central Europe, but we also observe regional differences caused by the local setting, e.g. intensification of soil erosion coinciding with the expansion of farming of cultivated lands in the Slavic Middle Ages. Our research reveals the largest archaeologically investigated area of historical charcoal production in the Northern European Lowland (NEL). We are clearly only beginning to understand the massive dimensions of charcoal production in the region.