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Invoking “collective memory”: mapping the emergence of a concept in archival science

Resource type
Authors/contributors
Title
Invoking “collective memory”: mapping the emergence of a concept in archival science
Abstract
The concept of “collective” or “social” memory has assumed increasing prominence in the discourse of archivists over the past few decades. Archives are frequently characterized as crucial institutions of social memory, and many professional activities are considered forms of memory preservation. We present a systematic examination of the relationships between archives and collective memory as articulated in the English-language archival literature. We first identify the major themes regarding collective memory and categorize archival writings into four major threads. We then analyze citations extracted from 165 articles about collective memory published between 1980 and 2010 in four leading English-language archival studies journals. We identify the most influential scholars and publications and trace the evolution of the collective memory concept in that literature. By comparing the archival literature on collective memory to that indexed in Thomson’s Web of Science and in Google Scholar, we identify specific disciplines, authors, and works that archivists working on collective memory may find useful. We find that in general the archival literature on collective memory is fairly insular and self-referential and call on archivists to actively engage other disciplines when carrying out collective memory research.
Publication
Archival Science
Volume
13
Issue
2
Pages
217-251
Date
2013-06-01
Journal Abbr
Arch Sci
Language
English
ISSN
1573-7519
Short Title
Invoking “collective memory”
Accessed
21/05/2019, 11:02
Library Catalog
Springer Link
Extra
Other Publications
Citation
Jacobsen, T., Punzalan, R. L., & Hedstrom, M. L. (2013). Invoking “collective memory”: mapping the emergence of a concept in archival science. Archival Science, 13(2), 217–251. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10502-013-9199-4