Archives-in-the-Making, Vulnerable Communities and Migration: Outreach and Innovative Scholarship in Audiovisual-Based Research Projects and Associations

Abstract

The (Dis)Agreements section brings together four research projects and an association engaged in the preservation, creation and restoration of archives, especially audiovisual archives, connected with migratory phenomena and subaltern communities. The dialogue with the researchers of these initiatives—based in Canada, Italy, the UK and Belgium—covers the origins of these projects and explores their goals, their theoretical and ethical positions, their relations with grassroots communities, their outreach activities and the difficulties associated with preserving the materials included in their archives in the digital era. In general, these projects take a critical approach to traditional archives, functioning as counter-archives whereby the institutions operate more as facilitators than as repositories or proprietary organisations.