{"title":"Building ignorance by disseminating “evidence”: an agnotological look into the digital archives of the Islamic Republic of Iran","authors":"Natalia Pashkeeva","doi":"10.1007/s10502-024-09447-9","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>In democratic contexts, the discussion of digital technology in the field of archival heritage highlights its potential benefits for expanding access to archives to the wider public. It also focuses on the legal, moral, and ethical issues raised by copyright or privacy concerns. Using the digital archives of the Islamic Republic of Iran (IRI) as a case study, this article thoroughly analyses another facet of digital technology, namely its role in building and perpetuating ignorance about the past through the mass digitization of archives in authoritarian contexts. The analysis scrutinizes digitally processed archives that are accessible as carefully curated data—some digitized and some born digital—through a network of open access web-resources developed by several institutions in the IRI. The article briefly considers the broader context of access restrictions to archives and information, and of the intentional and institutionalized opacity of this field in the IRI. These digitally processed archives are evaluated through the lens of archival science theory. Several macro- and micro-aspects of the kind of knowledge that scholars can produce from these digitally processed historical sources are considered.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":46131,"journal":{"name":"ARCHIVAL SCIENCE","volume":"24 3","pages":"455 - 479"},"PeriodicalIF":1.4000,"publicationDate":"2024-09-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"ARCHIVAL SCIENCE","FirstCategoryId":"1085","ListUrlMain":"https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10502-024-09447-9","RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":null,"ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q2","JCRName":"INFORMATION SCIENCE & LIBRARY SCIENCE","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
In democratic contexts, the discussion of digital technology in the field of archival heritage highlights its potential benefits for expanding access to archives to the wider public. It also focuses on the legal, moral, and ethical issues raised by copyright or privacy concerns. Using the digital archives of the Islamic Republic of Iran (IRI) as a case study, this article thoroughly analyses another facet of digital technology, namely its role in building and perpetuating ignorance about the past through the mass digitization of archives in authoritarian contexts. The analysis scrutinizes digitally processed archives that are accessible as carefully curated data—some digitized and some born digital—through a network of open access web-resources developed by several institutions in the IRI. The article briefly considers the broader context of access restrictions to archives and information, and of the intentional and institutionalized opacity of this field in the IRI. These digitally processed archives are evaluated through the lens of archival science theory. Several macro- and micro-aspects of the kind of knowledge that scholars can produce from these digitally processed historical sources are considered.
期刊介绍：
Archival Science promotes the development of archival science as an autonomous scientific discipline. The journal covers all aspects of archival science theory, methodology, and practice. Moreover, it investigates different cultural approaches to creation, management and provision of access to archives, records, and data. It also seeks to promote the exchange and comparison of concepts, views and attitudes related to recordkeeping issues around the world.Archival Science''s approach is integrated, interdisciplinary, and intercultural. Its scope encompasses the entire field of recorded process-related information, analyzed in terms of form, structure, and context. To meet its objectives, the journal draws from scientific disciplines that deal with the function of records and the way they are created, preserved, and retrieved; the context in which information is generated, managed, and used; and the social and cultural environment of records creation at different times and places.Covers all aspects of archival science theory, methodology, and practiceInvestigates different cultural approaches to creation, management and provision of access to archives, records, and dataPromotes the exchange and comparison of concepts, views, and attitudes related to recordkeeping issues around the worldAddresses the entire field of recorded process-related information, analyzed in terms of form, structure, and context
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