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Co-constructing digital archiving practices for community heritage preservation in Egypt and Iraq

Co-constructing digital archiving practices for community heritage preservation in Egypt and Iraq
Co-constructing digital archiving practices for community heritage preservation in Egypt and Iraq
We document cultural heritage to preserve cultural heritage, to ensure its survival by pushing back against the entropic forces of forgetting and neglect. These entropic forces are particularly acute for intangible cultural heritage preserved in digital form and produced in fragile and conflict-affected settings. And whilst professionals from across the ‘memory’ professions have responded to these challenges, based on our experience of development work with young people in Egypt and Iraq, they have done so in ways that are ill-suited to the worldviews, cultural practices, educational experience, and learning models of those outside centres of archival power. This paper describes the delivery of ‘digital archiving’ workshops, training, support, and resources developed by an interdisciplinary and multi-sectoral collective of academics, practitioners, community leaders, and community participants. Working at the intersection of development studies, heritage management, and digital preservation, this paper argues that cultural heritage practices are enriched by foregrounding particular place-based and contingent activities that productively peel back the provincialism of the canons of enlightenment memory work.
co-creation, development work, digital archiving, fragile and conflict-affected settings, heritage, memory professions
2195-2957
85-96
Baker, James
96e66490-0844-46eb-bc81-fbbc6bf38692
Shahab, Sofya
53d10ee0-1bd6-478b-8348-ba42d600b31e
Tadros, Mariz
579f23f2-099f-46ec-b19e-dbc27a7b104d
Baker, James
96e66490-0844-46eb-bc81-fbbc6bf38692
Shahab, Sofya
53d10ee0-1bd6-478b-8348-ba42d600b31e
Tadros, Mariz
579f23f2-099f-46ec-b19e-dbc27a7b104d

Baker, James, Shahab, Sofya and Tadros, Mariz (2021) Co-constructing digital archiving practices for community heritage preservation in Egypt and Iraq. Preservation, Digital Technology & Culture, 50 (2), 85-96. (doi:10.1515/pdtc-2021-0018).

Record type: Article

Abstract

We document cultural heritage to preserve cultural heritage, to ensure its survival by pushing back against the entropic forces of forgetting and neglect. These entropic forces are particularly acute for intangible cultural heritage preserved in digital form and produced in fragile and conflict-affected settings. And whilst professionals from across the ‘memory’ professions have responded to these challenges, based on our experience of development work with young people in Egypt and Iraq, they have done so in ways that are ill-suited to the worldviews, cultural practices, educational experience, and learning models of those outside centres of archival power. This paper describes the delivery of ‘digital archiving’ workshops, training, support, and resources developed by an interdisciplinary and multi-sectoral collective of academics, practitioners, community leaders, and community participants. Working at the intersection of development studies, heritage management, and digital preservation, this paper argues that cultural heritage practices are enriched by foregrounding particular place-based and contingent activities that productively peel back the provincialism of the canons of enlightenment memory work.

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2021-10-01_DA-community_paper_accepted - Accepted Manuscript
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More information

Accepted/In Press date: 1 October 2021
Published date: 3 November 2021
Additional Information: Funding Information: Research funding: This work was funded by British Academy (SDP2\100397). Publisher Copyright: © 2021 Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Boston.
Keywords: co-creation, development work, digital archiving, fragile and conflict-affected settings, heritage, memory professions

Identifiers

Local EPrints ID: 451534
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/451534
ISSN: 2195-2957
PURE UUID: 06480eec-a1eb-45f8-a199-ba36b729d62d
ORCID for James Baker: ORCID iD orcid.org/0000-0002-2682-6922

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Date deposited: 06 Oct 2021 16:30
Last modified: 17 Mar 2024 06:52

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Contributors

Author: James Baker ORCID iD
Author: Sofya Shahab
Author: Mariz Tadros

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