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- Title
Life on File: Archival Epistemology and Theory.
- Authors
Skarpelis, A. K. M.
- Abstract
History's epistemological dilemma equally applies to sociology: how can we make claims about persons, events, and processes on the basis of archival records? This article develops a framework called Life on File that combines sociological strengths in qualitative methodologies and an interest in how states shape populations, with library and information sciences' attention to documentary production and anthropological and historical insights into the intersections of archives, knowledge, and power. The framework has three components: the act of recovery of life, processes, and events; the turning of life into a record; and the movement of a file from collection to preservation and use. The result is a methodologically rigorous and globally mobile theory. Empirically, the piece draws on comparative historical fieldwork on state-led racial classification and naturalization practices preserved in Japanese and German archives. While the framework is grounded in research on state archives, its utility extends across types of archives and records. In addition, it provides sociologists with a roadmap on how to use archives in single case as well as comparative and transnational research.
- Subjects
STATE government archives; LIBRARY science; THEORY of knowledge; COLLECTORS &; collecting; INFORMATION science; RACIAL classification; HISTORY of archives
- Publication
Qualitative Sociology, 2020, Vol 43, Issue 3, p385
- ISSN
0162-0436
- Publication type
Article
- DOI
10.1007/s11133-020-09460-1