Archivists claim a strong connection between records, records management and accountability. Archival legal frameworks are largely based on the idea that properly managed records are indispensable for accurate control of governmental agencies. Important research has been done how the relationship between records, records management, transparency and accountability can be understood. In our project we will especially focus on an understudied part, the role and impact of information culture on effectiveness of recordkeeping. The aim is to get a better understanding of the power of information culture in recordkeeping on different levels: societies, communities, agencies.  This research will be predominantly comparative. In the short term (2020-2022) this project will result in conference papers and journal articles with participants Fiorella Foscarini (University of Toronto), Charles Jeurgens (UvA), Ragna Kemp Haraldsdóttir (University of Iceland), Gillian Oliver  (Monash University), Lian Zhiying (Shanghai University). 

Ephemerality of cultural performances, 3-D building information modelling in infrastructural designs and construction works, fluidity of smart-cities concepts. Only a few very diverse examples which share at least one fundamental feature with respect to archiving: the inadequacy of traditional archiving strategies to keep a reliable and complete representation of the features and behavior of the different forms of information. This project seeks to identify vital characteristics that are valuable to keep in different disciplines and situated practices and to develop new strategies for ‘archiving’ them. The concept of ‘archiving by design’ will be critically analysed. We will investigate several case studies, and organize workshops and present papers in close cooperation with institutional partners such as National Archives and Ingenieursbureau. 

This research will result in (conference)papers, dissertations, presentations and guidelines. Participants: Annet Dekker, Charles Jeurgens, Theo Kremer, Erik Saaman, Meung-Hoan Noh, Geert-Jan van Bussel. 

Decolonizing the archive has become a much-debated issue in the archival discipline. Archival theorists and members of marginalized groups have successfully addressed this subject within the archival discipline. Decolonizing archives is a concept with many different forms of expression and with debates conducted from very different contexts and perspectives.  Although the debate about the necessity of decolonizing archives originated in countries with a history of settler-colonialism such as Canada, Australia and New Zealand, this doesn’t imply that the issue is not relevant for countries with different colonial histories, such as the Netherlands. Decolonization archives is seeking ways to dismantle the hegemony of the custodial institutions in archival knowledge production and acknowledging that archival infrastructures are the key to agency. 

In this project with several sub-projects, we work closely with institutions such as the International Institute of Social History, the National Archives and Studio Polat and we participate in several projects.  

• 2020-2021: participating in a NWO funded research project The Critical Visitor. Intersectional Approaches for Rethinking & Retooling Accessibility and Inclusivity in Heritage Spaces. The proposed research project takes an “intersectional approach” towards inclusivity and accessibility. Consisting of fifteen consortium partners from the heritage sector recommendations of inclusion will be developed and tested. The aim is to enable cultural institutions to implement daily working practices (selection, collection, preservation, display, interaction) that alleviate structures of exclusion. In this project the UvA research group Archives and Records in Transition contributes from the perspective of recordkeeping. In this project we especially, but not exclusively study the relationships between colonial archives, digitization, societal power and the ‘cultural archive’. Through a focus on archives that were seized or displaced during the processes of colonization and decolonization we will study the opportunities and dilemmas of digitization of these records in the context of inclusivity and accessibility. Using (displaced) colonial archives gives us a good opportunity to investigate the power dynamics of digitization and the possible socio-cultural implications. The contribution of our research group to this project is a workshop and article. (Michael Karabinos and Charles Jeurgens) 
• 2020-2024: Strategies of decolonizing the archives. In this project we will investigate and analyse colonial practices of recordkeeping, current practices of decolonizing archives and records, the conceptual and practical dilemmas of decolonizing archives and records, the ensuing (methodological) debates. The ultimate aim is to identify best practices of decolonizing archives and to translate these into useful approaches for archival institutions by developing toolkits and methodologies. The project will result in conference papers, presentations/conferences, journal articles and toolkits, dissertations. Participants: National Archives, IISH, Studio Polat, Michael Karabinos, Charles Jeurgens, Nico Vriend, Lillyana Mulya.